The Purple Girl
by Audrey Kane and illustrated by Tory and Norman Tabor
BLURB:
Violet lives behind garden walls. Is she magical? Is she the devil’s child—or simply cursed? When the lonely thirteen-year-old embarks on a dangerous journey to find the one boy that dared to befriend her, she travels at night...in the dark...to keep people from seeing her purple skin. But no one is more surprised than Violet when she unlocks her mysterious gift.
EXCERPT
This is how the story was told to me. When the midwife brought me into the world, she let out a scream. Hands trembling, she swaddled me in a white blanket, leaving only a small opening so I could breathe. She refused to let my mother see me until my father appeared and stood by her side. Purple mist seeped through the white blanket, staining the midwife’s fingers.
“God help us all. This baby is cursed!” the midwife cried, thrusting me into my father’s arms. She grabbed a rag and tried to scrub the stains off her hands.
As my father unwrapped me, the color drained from his face. My mother, weak from the delivery, reached toward him...or perhaps to me.
“What’s wrong?” After a moment, he held me up.
My mother wailed when she saw her purple baby.
My father turned away from her and laid me in the cradle, far from my mother, his fingers shaking as he bundled me in the plum-colored blanket. He remained silent, wiping his purple stained palms on his pants. The stains wouldn’t stay on him forever... only a few moments...but he didn’t know that then.
“Oh, Samuel,” my mother sobbed. “How did this happen?”
My father gazed into my eyes, and when he finally spoke, his voice broke.
“We’ll call her Violet.” He stroked a tuft of my lavender hair and sank to his knees. AUTHOR Bio and Links:
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