The Tamara’s Teardrops series follows Tamara French as she tries to rebuild her life after release, meet the conditions of parole, and adjust to living with a foster family. Freedom does not erase the past, and returning to the outside world brings new rules, emotional triggers, damaged relationships, and consequences she cannot simply leave behind.
These realistic young adult novels explore juvenile justice, foster care, trauma, re-entry, and the difficult work of learning to trust. Tamara is determined to move forward, but when everything that can go wrong seems to do exactly that, survival may depend on choices no teenager should have to make alone.
Begin with the award-winning Tattooed Teardrops and follow Tamara through four emotionally intense stories of setbacks, resilience, and the search for a future that belongs to her.
Readers will appreciate the realistic details about Tamara’s release, her issues dealing with a foster family, her emotional triggers, and the challenges facing someone trying to maintain the conditions of parole. For those teens who love books where all that can go wrong does go wrong (isn’t that almost all of them?), this is a winner. – School Library Journal
P.D. Workman’s fictional Tattooed Teardrops and Tewhan Butler’s nonfiction title America’s Massacre: The Audacity of Despair and a Message of Hope top this year’s In the Margins (ITM) Book Awards. The selection committee, operating under Library Services for Youth in Custody, selected these winning works among books by, for, and about kids living in the margins. – Library Services for Youth in Custody
Get all four books in the award-winning Tamara’s Teardrops series for one low price!
Follow Tamara French as she struggles to overcome the challenges of her past and reintegrate into the normal world.
Tamara’s Teardrops 1-4 Read More »
(Book 4) It was her second chance at parole, and Tamara knew this time that it wasn’t going to be easy. That ended up being the understatement of the century. In a new environment, trying to be a parent for the first time after years of not being allowed to make any decisions for herself, she didn’t know how she was going to make it.
Vanishing Teardrops Read More »
(Book 3) Tamara French is back in juvenile detention, and things are not going well. Have her experiences on the outside affected her so much? The staff can’t figure out what is wrong, and Tamara herself can’t explain what is going on with her.
Tortured Teardrops Read More »
(Book 2) Returning to juvie after breaching her parole, Tamara finds that everything is the same as when she left, and yet everything is different. She fights to reestablish her rep while increasingly troubled by emerging memories.
(Book 1) Tamara had thought that when she got out of juvie, things would be easier. But before long, it seems like her life is spiraling into chaos.
If she can’t prove to her probation officer that she is innocent of the allegations against her, she’s going back to prison, and Tamara just can’t let that happen.
Tattooed Teardrops Read More »
