Latest News

Ashley loves doing Skype visits. Learn how you can bring her to your school here.

 

Ashley is the January-February 2013 featured author for the Spirit of Texas reading program.

 

What Can't Wait is on the Kentucky Bluegrass Award list and the Georgia Peach Book Award list for 2012-2013. It also made YALSA's Best Fiction for Young Adults list.

Recent Reviews

This is what people are saying about The Knife and the Buttefly:

 

"An unflinching portrait with an ending that begs for another reading." 

--Kirkus Reviews

 

"Harrowing, heart-rending, and ultimately hopeful."

--Jordan Sonnenblick, best-selling YA author of Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie

 

"An uncompromising look at two characters most readers would otherwise look away from."

--Booklist

"This book is both knife and butterfly: it cuts deep... but is also compassionate and hopeful."

---·The Book Smugglers

 

"Azael is a dynamic and sympathetic main character with an authentic voice.... an assured success in libraries serving high school students."

--School Library Journal

 

More reviews...

Welcome to the home page of Ashley Hope Pérez, author of the novels The Knife and the Butterfly (February 2012) and What Can't Wait (2011), both published by Carolrhoda Lab. Ashley is knee-deep in a third (top-secret) novel.

The Knife and the Butterfly

KBtwo-books-upright1000pixelsAzael knows jails, and something isn’t right about this lockup. No phone call. No lawyer. No news about his brother or his homies. If only he could remember...

Lexi Allen would love to forget the fight, would love for it to disappear back into the Xanax fog it came from. She knows that there’s more at stake in her trial than her life alone, though. Azael needs the truth. The knife cut, but somehow it also connected.

  • Read an excerpt from·The Knife and the Butterfly here or find reviews, excerpts, and insights from the author here.

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What Can't Wait book image

What Can't Wait

Seventeen-year-old Marisa Moreno has smarts and plenty of promise, but she’s marooned in a broken-down Houston neighborhood—and in a Mexican immigrant family where making ends meet matters more than making it to college.·Caught between the expectations of two different worlds and carrying a dark secret, Marisa will have to decide what can't wait. Kirkus Reviews described What Can't Wait as "Un magnifico debut." Read an excerpt here.

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Latest Blog Post

  • All Hail the Persuasively Male Protagonist: SPLIT by Swati Avasthi
    All Hail the Persuasively Male Protagonist: SPLIT by Swati Avasthi

    In the female-dominated world of YA, it's crucial to recognize awesome books featuring male protagonists--especially when female authors have pulled off the work of imaginatively entering the inner world of the teen male.

    I grabbed Split (by Swati Avasthi) on an impulse and didn't have many specific expectations, but halfway through, I was reading the author's bio. Avasthi, a woman, writes persuasively from a male perspective, something I admire extra much because I worked hard at it for The Knife and the Butterfly. Here's the scoop, cribbed from the Goodreads listing:

    Sixteen-Year-Old Jace Witherspoon arrives at the doorstep of his estranged brother Christian with a re-landscaped face (courtesy of his father’s fist), $3.84, and a secret.

    He tries to move on, going for new friends, a new school, and a new job, but all his changes can’t make him forget what he left behind—his mother, who is still trapped with his dad, and his ex-girlfriend, who is keeping his secret.

    At least so far.

    Worst of all, Jace realizes that if he really wants to move forward, he may first have to do what scares him most: He may have to go back. First-time novelist Swati Avasthi has created a riveting and remarkably nuanced portrait of what happens after. After you’ve said enough, after you’ve run, after you’ve made the split—how do you begin to live again? Readers won’t be able to put this intense page-turner down.

     The plotting of Split is excellent, with each thread of the story propelling the action forward. There's a count-down dimension that ups the tension considerably. The book has a wildly upbeat ending for a book about domestic violence, but it's an ending that is earned by the protag's incremental growth through the course of the novel.

    This is a great recommendation for fans of Chris Crutcher--the voice of the novel reminded me of Whale Talk. Readers who've loved The Perks of Being a Wallflower might also connect well to the narrator.

Click here to continue reading other blog posts...

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A Note from The Author

Writing both makes me crazy and keeps me sane. 90% of the time it feels like hard, hard work, but the other 10% of the time is so exciting I couldn't do without it. If you have comments about my writing or are interested in arranging an author visit to your school, library, or book club, please This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . I love to hear from readers!

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Ashley Hope Pérez