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About Me: Kim Culbertson technically writes for teenagers, but there are some grown-ups who also like her work. Her first young adult novel Songs for a Teenage Nomad was published by Hip Pocket Press in June of 2007 and was reissued in fall of 2010 by Sourcebooks under their new young adult imprint FIRE. Songs for a Teenage Nomad won the 2008 Ben Franklin Award for Best New Voice in Children's/Young Adult Fiction, the silver 2008 IPPY medal for YA fiction, and several other awards. Kim’s second young adult novel Instructions for a Broken Heart was published by Sourcebooks Fire in May 2011. When she's not writing for teenagers, she's teaching them, and has taught high school English, creative writing and drama for over ten years in both public and private schools. Currently, she works at Forest Charter School, a progressive personalized learning program. Throughout her teaching, she has also worked privately as a college advisor, workshop teacher, and educational consultant. Kim sees her writing as an extension of her teaching. She lives in the Northern California foothills with her husband and daughter where she loves her small town life and drinks more coffee than perhaps she should.

Instructions for a Broken Heart

Top 20 Reasons He's a Slimy Jerk Bastard Jessa: To help you get over your train wreck EX, I've enclosed 20 envelopes. Each one has a reason why Sean is a jerk and not worth the dirt on your shoes. And each one has an instruction for you to do one un-Jessa-like thing a day. NO CHEATING!
Ciao! -C

When Jessa catches her boyfriend, Sean, making out with Natalie "the Boob Job" Stone three days before their drama club's departure to Italy, she completely freaks. Stuck with a front-row view of Sean and Natalie making out against the backdrop of a country that oozes romance, Jessa promises to follow all of the outrageous instructions in her best friend's care package and open her heart to new experiences. Enter cute Italian boy stage left.

Jessa had prepared to play the role of humiliated ex-girlfriend, but with Carissa directing her life from afar, it's finally time to take a shot at being a star.
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Songs for a Teenage Nomad

What is the soundtrack of your life?

After living in twelve places in eight years, Calle Smith finds herself in Andreas Bay, California, at the start of ninth grade. Another new home, another new school...Calle knows better than to put down roots. Her song journal keeps her moving to her own soundtrack, bouncing through a world best kept at a distance.

Yet before she knows it, friends creep in-as does an unlikely boy with a secret. Calle is torn over what may be her first chance at love. With all that she's hiding and all that she wants, can she find something lasting beyond music? And will she ever discover why she and her mother have been running in the first place?
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