WALKER, Pamela

PERSONAL: Born in Scottsville, KY.

ADDRESSES: Home—Brooklyn, NY. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Scholastic, 555 Broadway, New York, NY 10012-3999.

CAREER: Author, teacher, and librarian. Worked as a teacher and librarian for twelve years.

WRITINGS:

Pray Hard (young adult novel), Scholastic (New York, NY), 2001.

SIDELIGHTS: Pamela Walker's debut novel Pray Hard centers on twelve-year-old Amelia Forrest. It is one year after the sudden death of her father in a small-plane crash, a death for which Amelia secretly feels responsible, and Amelia and her mother have fallen apart in the interim. Her mother has gained fifty pounds and Amelia's grades in school have dropped. But on the morning that Amelia decides to regain control of their lives, sending her mother off to the beauty shop and herself sitting down to study, a mysterious stranger arrives at their door claiming to be a messenger from her father. This man, according to Sharon Grover in School Library Journal, "becomes the catalyst that allows Amelia and her mama to regain a sense of purpose in life, and more importantly, to regain their faith." Despite questioning the effectiveness of Walker's open-ended conclusion, Booklist reviewer Ilene Cooper called Pray Hard "a fine debut from a writer to watch." Writing in Publishers Weekly, a critic found Walker's ending "highly satisfying and accomplished in its deference to readers' imaginations."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, March 1, 2001, Ilene Cooper, review of PrayHard, p. 1283.

Publishers Weekly, April 9, 2001, review of Pray Hard, p. 75.

School Library Journal, July, 2001, Sharon Grover, review of Pray Hard, p. 115.

ONLINE

Southern Kentucky Festival of Books,http://www.sokybookfest.org/Bookfest01/ (May 13, 2003).*