Veronasongs

Donica Pine views herself as a normal, average, teenage girl. She loves to write, she's attending public school for the first time in her life, and she's developed an innocent crush on a boy in her class. The only problem is, everyone around her sees her as anything but normal. In this, her first year of high school, she's been advanced to the junior class. Her older brother is infamous for keeping a universally loathed bunch of friends. Her mother might be a lunatic. And if that's not enough, she's got to deal with the sun.

"Veronasongs", the breathtaking debut novel by Simbarashe, examines the political structure of a community as expressed through the actions of the people whose lives are touched by the existence of this brilliant but unusual fourteen-year-old girl. Immediately hailed by teachers and influential students as a person they want to mold into their likeness, Donica soon enjoys the fruits of being a local celebrity with an earnestness that's never uprooted. But when the journal of a boy she admires turns up stolen and ends up in her possession, she discovers that the fickle nature of being a teenager can have devastating consequences.