A Trip to PG County With Author Lakita Wilson
Lakita Wilson, is the author of several novels and non-fiction projects for children and young adults, including What Is Black Lives Matter?, a part of the New York Times Bestselling HQ Now series; Be Real, Macy Weaver, a coming-of-age middle-grade friendship story; and a few other secret projects she isn’t allowed to tell you about yet.
Lakita was born in Washington, DC, and grew up in Prince George’s County, Maryland. A 2017 recipient of SCBWI’s Emerging Voices Award, Wilson received her MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts.
And with her latest novel, Pretty Girl County, Wilson is putting on for the pretty girls from Maryland.
Pretty Girl County follows Sommer Watkins and Reya, two high school girls who went from being best friends to acting like they are strangers when they see each other.
They both attend the same school, but Sommer Watkins currently lives in Seat Pleasant, and Reya used to live there too, but things have changed for the better for Reya and her mom, and they are now living the good life in PG County.
Sommer is working hard to ensure that she gets into her dream college (Spelman) while also working hard at her father’s bookstore to save money for college. Reya is working hard to get into her dream college, too (Fashion Institute of Technology), but along the way, she runs into a problem that could cause her dream to slip away.
Now she has no other option but to work with her ex-best friend so she doesn’t miss out on an opportunity of a lifetime. Both girls are navigating their senior year in high school while also dealing with their own personal issues.
I got the chance to talk to Lakita Wilson about Pretty Girl County, and we dived into the worlds of Sommer and Reya. You can watch or listen to the podcast episode below.
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