THE DREAM SCHOOL

Contemporary Young Adult, 72,000 words

Currently querying this novel! At her small Jesuit high school in the Pacific Northwest, seventeen-year-old Kristina excels at everything except grieving. She believes getting into the Rhode Island School of Design will finally fill the space her father’s passing left behind. But when she misses an art portfolio review while bringing her cancer-stricken grandmother from Croatia to the United States, Kristina learns RISD found her work technically strong but emotionally empty. Now she has less than three months to rebuild her entire portfolio before the deadline. As Kristina scrambles to create new art, her world begins to unravel as she navigates fractured friendships, a new relationship with a long-time crush, and family secrets which come to light.