How One Book Can Impact One Reader . . . For Life, a guest post by Sydney Dunlap

One afternoon when my fifth-grade class was at the library for our weekly visit, my friend Jessica handed me a purple paperback book. “I just finished this,” she said. “It’s SO good. You have to read it.”

The book was Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, and it was obvious from the wrinkled cover and overall condition that this was a story a lot of kids had chosen to read. I glanced over the summary on the back, then checked it out. This was my first introduction to Judy Blume. I began Margaret’s story during what was then called Sustained Silent Reading Time and hardly put it down until I’d turned the last page later that evening.

The story was so real. And it was about things my friends and I were extremely interested in, but I had never seen a book before that boldly marched into such topics. I was utterly shocked to be reading about bras and periods—and in school—but I felt like I was right there with Margaret, Nancy, Janie, and Gretchen as they talked and worried about things that were beginning to happen to them and coming soon for my friends and me. Judy Blume got into the minds of her characters in a way I’d never experienced, and from then on, for the next few years, I read every book of hers that I could get my hands on. Her work was sometimes a window and sometimes a mirror, but always impactful.

Twelve years later I was back in elementary school—this time as a fourth-grade teacher. And I was grateful to Judy Blume all over again, now for her hilarious Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, a book I read aloud to my students at the beginning of each school year. It was the perfect story to set the tone for fourth grade, and what better way to begin bonding as a class than by laughing together at Peter and Fudge’s antics?

Spending my days with elementary schoolers was a good fit for me, and I taught in Northern Virginia for quite a while. Toward the end of my time there, while flipping channels on TV one night, I came across a movie where kids hardly older than my students were being cursed at and thrown into a van. I continued watching to see what was going on and was horrified to realize that it was based on a true occurrence of human trafficking.

I began learning all I could about this awful crime and found out a few key facts, like that child sex trafficking has been documented in both urban and rural areas in all 50 states, and that nobody has the exact numbers because so many cases go unreported. I later learned that in 2021, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received 17,200 reports of child trafficking[i] and Polaris Project reported that 65% of known recruitments that year took place online.[ii] Traffickers and recruiters actively scroll through social media posts looking for kids to chat with so they can build their trust and target them as potential victims.

As I was finding out more about this terrible reality, my husband was transferred to Houston for his job. Rather than seeking a new full-time teaching position, I decided to tutor part-time and volunteer with anti-trafficking organizations. Upon hearing the stories of many child trafficking survivors and learning that kids ages 11-14 are an especially targeted group, I searched for books addressing this topic for middle grade readers, but couldn’t find any.

I thought back to that favorite childhood novel where Judy Blume had tackled bras and periods in a kid-friendly, age-appropriate way, and wondered if I could tackle social media safety and the threat of trafficking to help build young readers’ awareness before and during the time they are most vulnerable. While in Virginia, I’d studied the craft and business of writing as a member and conference organizer for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, so it seemed to be the right time to put all I’d learned together. I knew I needed to try.

That’s how It Happened on Saturday, my 2023 debut middle grade novel, came about. It’s a character-driven story of a 13-year-old girl named Julia who narrowly escapes becoming a victim of human trafficking after meeting someone online who isn’t who he says he is. Julia must find the courage to tell her friends the truth about her experience so the same thing doesn’t happen to them. In addition to addressing online safety, the book includes themes of middle school, fitting in, recovery from trauma, and the power of friendship. The more difficult subject matter is softened by the hours Julia spends at a rescue barn, where she helps take care of the horses. Her equine friends become an important part of her healing, and I tapped into my own love of horses and early teen experience working at a stable when writing these elements. With the publication of It Happened on Saturday, I’ve had lots of opportunities to speak to middle school students about online safety and am grateful for their interest and receptiveness regarding this topic.

My upcoming novel, Racing the Clouds, which is set to release in February 2025, delves into other “tough” subject matter that is a real part of many young people’s lives: substance abuse in the family. The main character, Sage, blames herself for the accident leading to her mother’s opioid addiction, then tries to “fix” her family by visiting her mother’s estranged parents. Along with the complexity of family relationships, this story includes themes of friendship, the value of forgiveness, and how to find your way through a challenging time with hope and resilience. A sweet rescue dog brings humor and some light moments to the story, and Sage discovers the amazing way that dogs can bring people with even the most different and opposing personalities together.

Like Sage, I have experienced the addiction of loved ones, and I know how it feels to get home and not be sure what you’ll find on the other side of the door. It is my hope that this book can help children navigating challenging circumstances and also build empathy among their peers.

I’m incredibly grateful to the teachers, parents, and librarians who have helped my work find readers, and I will continue to try to write stories that bring awareness to topics that aren’t always easy, that might push the boundaries of middle grade, but are very real, very important, and that kids need to know about.

It is my not-too-distant future goal to travel to Key West and visit Books & Books, the independent bookstore where Judy Blume can often be found, to thank her in person for the amazing impact she had on my life as a child, then as a teacher, and now as an author.

---

[i] https://www.missingkids.org/content/dam/missingkids/pdfs/CST%20Identification%20Resource.pdf

[ii] https://polarisproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Polaris-Analysis-of-2021-Data-from-the-National-Human-Trafficking-Hotline.pdf

Meet the author

Sydney Dunlap is an award-winning author and former elementary school teacher who has worked extensively with youth facing challenging circumstances. She enjoys reading and writing heartfelt, hopeful books that explore tough topics that aren’t often addressed in middle grade literature. Her 2023 debut novel, It Happened on Saturday, has received several medals and was named a 2025 OLA Masterlist selection, Beehive Award Nominee, and Crystal Kite Honor Book. Her next book, Racing the Clouds, releases 2/18/25. A lifelong animal lover, Sydney lives with her family in a home where the dogs and cats outnumber the people.

Connect with Sydney!

Website: www.sydneydunlap.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sydneydunlapwrites/

Get Sydney’s books: https://linktr.ee/sydneydunlap

About Racing the Clouds

If thirteen-year-old Sage had done one thing differently that day last November, everything would be fine. Only she didn’t, so she and her dad had to leave Philadelphia for a new life in middle-of-nowhere Virginia. Her dad has never actually said he blames her for what happened, but how could he not?

Sage is determined to push it all out of her mind, but then, just before summer vacation, she hears from the grandparents she’s never met. They want her to visit, and she realizes this could be her chance to mend the rift that’s kept everybody apart.

When she meets Grandmother Marion, though, Sage is sure her trip is headed for disaster. Except she wasn’t counting on making a new friend or rescuing a sweet stray dog. With them by her side, maybe she can find the courage to face what she’s been avoiding all along.

From the award-winning author of It Happened on Saturday comes a heartfelt and empowering story that explores the complexity of family relationships, the value of forgiveness, and how to find your way forward in a tough situation with resilience and hope.

“Told with touching honesty and profound sympathy, Racing the Clouds lovingly reminds us about the importance of having the hard conversations, the value of standing in another person’s shoes for a while, and the extraordinary resilience of family.” Kate Albus, author of A Place to Hang the Moon

ISBN-13: 978-1631639166
Publisher: North Star Editions
Publication date: 02/18/2025
Age Range: 10 – 14 Years

Filed under: Guest Post