Tell Us Your Secret

by Barbara Cohen

A group of aspiring teenage authors attend a two week writers conference where they not only learn about each other but begin to reveal their secret selves.

Genres: Young Adult

172 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1989

About the author

Barbara Cohen (1932-1992) was the author of several acclaimed picture books and novels for young readers, including The Carp in the Bathtub, Yussel's Prayer: A Yom Kippur Story, Thank You, Jackie Robinson, and King of the Seventh Grade.

Reviews

[Nora · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one made a big impression on me when I read it as a teenager. First, because it was about teenage writers and there was a lot of juicy material about what makes someone a good writer. Secondly, the female main character was Jewish and descended from Holocaust survivors. She spurns the attention of the male main character because he's not Jewish and she doesn't want to "start something she can't finish." I thought that was utterly bananas but I couldn't articulate why. Add some spooky thriller material and a character who is lying about who she is, and I was fully invested. Unfortunately I soon forgot the title and author, but after years of thinking about it, I was able to track it down and re-read it.