The Girl in the Mirror: A Novel in Poems and Journal Entries

An adopted teen's search for her birth mother is overshadowed by a wrenching loss, dramatically told through her poems and journals.

Lizzie McLane, the adopted poet-heroine of the widely acclaimed The Secret of Me, is now a high school senior, excited about her future: meeting boys, college, and finally finding her birthmother. Then, on the day a letter from her adoption agency arrives, her adoptive father unexpectedly dies. Lizzie, lost in grief, turns to alcohol and the wrong kind of friends, and her life begins to spiral out of control. Loved ones try to help, but only in her poems and journals can Lizzie make sense of the hurt and her relentless curiosity about her birthmother.

     I looked in the mirror . . .
     Who was that girl staring
     at me, blood on her blouse, black under her
     swollen eyes? I don't know you, I said out loud.
     I don't know you, she said back.

The Girl in the Mirror is a story about love and identity―brave, vulnerable, and compelling.