A Celebration of Books,
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Gaithersburg
Book Festival

May 17, 2025

10am – 6pm

Bohrer Park


Laura Malone Elliott

Latest Title: Truth, Lies, and the Questions in Between
Truth, Lies, and the Questions in Between

As a presidency unravels and the fight for women’s rights intensifies, a teen girl’s future will be determined by her willingness to seek the truth, in this stunning work of historical fiction perfect for fans of Monica Hesse and Malinda Lo.
 
Patty Appleton is making history. As one of the Senate’s first female Congressional Pages, she’s not only paving the way for other politically minded girls, she has a front-row seat to debates dividing the nation, especially around women’s rights and roles. The battle between the old ways and the new polarizes the women in Patty’s life, and she finds herself torn between traditional expectations—to be anobedient daughter aspiring to become a perfect wife—and questions new friends like fiercely feminist Simone encourage her to ask.

But the questions don’t stop at women’s rights: The Watergate scandal is intensifying. As evidence mounts that the White House engaged in crimes, smears, and cover-ups to manipulate an election, Patty worries her dad, a fundraiser for President Nixon, could somehow be involved. Determining truth from lies becomes ever more essential for the nation’s future—and for Patty’s as well.

Illustrated throughout with remarkable real-life images and headlines, this timely exploration of 1973—the year of Watergate hearings, the Equal Rights Amendment, and Roe v. Wade—unfolds through the story of a young woman driven to question everything as she learns to think for, and rely on, herself.

About Laura Malone Elliott

L. M. Elliott was a senior writer with Washingtonian magazine before becoming an award-winning, New York Times best-selling author of 14 historical and biographical fictions. Her YA novels include “Under a War-Torn Sky;” “Bea and the New Deal Horse;”  “Hamilton and Peggy!;” “Suspect Red,” exploring McCarthyism’s censorship and “witch hunts;” and “Walls,” a Kirkus Best YA Books of the Year set in 1961 Germany as the infamous Berlin Wall goes up. “Truth, Lies, and the Questions in Between” joins the last two in a loose trilogy about the Cold War, fraught political eras, and the dangers of disinformation, censorship and polarization.

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