Jessica Walker – författare

Barnes & Noble's Best Young Adult Book of the Year!Two strangers. One forgotten astronomy textbook. A decades-old secret.A fascinating, highly illustrated, epistolary novel perfect for fans of Rainbow Rowell and Alice Oseman, featuring designed doodled edges!When a recent transfer student starts keeping her diary in the oldest textbook at the Green Bank High School library, the last thing she expects is to receive a response. Thus begins a sweeping tale of unlikely friendship and long-buried secrets between two secret pen pals at a rural West Virginia high school.Copernicus is adrift and searching for answers after the sudden death of her mother, and leaving her cosmopolitan life in San Francisco behind. Kepler is a small-town girl with straight A's and big plans to be the first person in her family to go to college, despite her family's modest means. The two girls are so different from one another but united in their goal to solve a mystery that has riddled Green Bank for decades.Meticulously hand-drawn by debut author Jessica Walker across the pages of an actual ancient astrophysics textbook, The Secret Astronomers is a story of friendship, family, crop circles, secret crushes, giant telescopes, life in Appalachia, and two girls discovering new ways to connect across any divide that separates them.

‘... I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s thinking; hang on a minute; “I seem to have the knack of pleasing ladies.” In trousers? With short hair? In public? Was that allowed? Indeed it was.’A cool and contemporary look at one of the most intriguing aspects of musical theatre – just what is it that makes a woman in trousers so appealing? Accompanied by a piano, mezzo-soprano Jessica Walker dons a few well-chosen items of male attire, giving a supremely well-sung performance that conjures up an entire world, from the swaggering cross-dressers of the Victorian Music Hall to the ambiguous boy-heroes of Mozart and Strauss, to the back-room bulldykes of the Harlem Renaissance. Commissioned and produced by Opera North Projects with the Southbank Centre touring partner Welcome to Yorkshire. The Girl I Left Behind Me is a provocative, flirtatious, personal one woman-guide which deliciously recalls a forgotten chapter of female performance.The Girl I Left Behind Me will be performed at The Barbican Centre in November 2011 as part of the Bite Season.

‘... I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s thinking; hang on a minute; “I seem to have the knack of pleasing ladies.” In trousers? With short hair? In public? Was that allowed? Indeed it was.’A cool and contemporary look at one of the most intriguing aspects of musical theatre – just what is it that makes a woman in trousers so appealing? Accompanied by a piano, mezzo-soprano Jessica Walker dons a few well-chosen items of male attire, giving a supremely well-sung performance that conjures up an entire world, from the swaggering cross-dressers of the Victorian Music Hall to the ambiguous boy-heroes of Mozart and Strauss, to the back-room bulldykes of the Harlem Renaissance. Commissioned and produced by Opera North Projects with the Southbank Centre touring partner Welcome to Yorkshire. The Girl I Left Behind Me is a provocative, flirtatious, personal one woman-guide which deliciously recalls a forgotten chapter of female performance.The Girl I Left Behind Me will be performed at The Barbican Centre in November 2011 as part of the Bite Season.

Seven years ago, the plane went down.Thirty-two of us are still alive.We survived by following one rule above all others: no attachments, no intimacy, no exceptions. It's the only way to keep order in a world where one mistake can cost everything.Then Christa breaks the rule.Her pregnancy threatens the fragile system that's kept us alive—and exposes a truth none of us are ready to face. If the group finds out, the consequences will be brutal. But keeping her secret could be just as deadly.I've always followed the rules. I had to.Until now.Because saving Christa means risking exile, starvation… or worse. And I won't be doing it alone. Cade is reckless, infuriating, and far too tempting for a world where desire is forbidden—but he might be the only one strong enough to help me get her out.To survive, we'll have to leave the safety of everything we know and face the wilderness beyond.But out there, the real danger isn't just what's hunting us.It's what we're becoming to each other.Out of the Wild is a gripping survival romance packed with high-stakes tension, found family, and slow-burning, forbidden desire—perfect for fans of dystopian love stories where breaking the rules might be the only way to stay alive.