Category: News stories

Sheryl Azzam’s Red Flags and Butterflies

Sheryl’s book will be released on October 18, 2025. Five out of five stars from me!

“A tender, heartfelt, and intelligent coming-of-age story that celebrates quiet strength and trusting your instincts.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Straight A student, talented artist, swim team star — tenth-grader Lexie Moore is a shoo-in for Sunridge High’s prestigious fine art program, if only she can find the right words to tell her dad she wants to apply.

Lexie’s dad doesn’t see the point of some overpriced art school. He wants Lexie and her brother at home to help him launch his new renovation business. He says he can’t do this without her, so Lexie agrees to pitch in, just for a little while. If she supports his plan, then he’ll have to support hers, right? It’s only fair.
But Lexie’s dad has a very different definition of “fair,” and as his demands increase, his means of getting his way become more and more suffocating.

Red Flags and Butterflies is an engrossing story about a young person facing the realities of emotional abuse.		 

Standoff #1 new release!

Standoff, book 2 of my #KidnappedfromUkraine trilogy just popped up as number one for hot new releases in its category on both Amazon.com and Amazon.ca today. Standoff will be published on Oct 7th. Book 3 is also number 5 on the dot com site and 3 on the dot ca site. Readers of Under Attack, book one, have commented that reading it helped them understand on a visceral level what it’s like to be a kid in Ukraine right now. 

Backyard butterflies

I’m not writing; I’m not editing. This is a rather strange feeling. Instead, I’m spending a lot of time outdoors.

A monarch butterfly feeding on my coneflowers

I watched this great spangled fritillary butterfly coming out of its cocoon this morning. (Update: ack! This is actually the butterfly being attacked by a goldenrod crab spider!! Thanks Linda Mikolayenko for that dose of reality!)

The front side of this great spangled fritillary butterfly emerging from its cocoon

Students say thank you

It was such a pleasure to speak with 7th grade students at JL Simpson Middle School this May. This is the second year in a row that I’ve virtually visited with all 11 classes. Students are well-prepared and avid readers and I really admire their teachers because they know how to combo a whole lot of learning for maximum effect. I got this package in the mail — thank you notes from the kids, and also from Jennifer, media specialist extraordinaire. But these aren’t just any thank-you notes. Students created thank you notes for me to use as thank you notes! The outside of each note card has student-created art based on a scene from one of my books. On the back of the cards is the student’s name and the name of the book that inspired their art. So a learning opportunity that combines art, literature, history, communications and courtesy! Wow!

Keynote at PYI

Thrilled to be giving the Claire Mackay memorial lecture at the annual CANSCAIP Packaging Your Imagination one-day conference. My topic: Writing from the Shadows. Before I was published in book-form, this conference was the one that jump-started my career. I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in writing or illustrating books for young people. Here’s the full program.

Dance of the Banished, Turkish language edition

Turkish language edition published by Qizilbas Publishers, Britanya Alevi Federasyonu

It is such an honour to have my WWI novel, Dance of the Banished, finally available in a Turkish language edition. Thank you Qizilbas Publishers, Britanya Alevi Federasyonu, Pajama Press and Catherine Mitchell, for making this happen.

Isn’t this beautiful? It was created by one of the members of the British Alevi Federation and is displayed on the side of their building in London England. The original artwork was created by Pascal Milelli.