Margaret Willey has been writing for many years in many different genres. All of her books and stories come from a personal place, either something that happened to her or something she witnessed at close range. Like her previous novel from Carolrhoda Lab, FOUR SECRETS (2012), BEETLE BOY is about bullying, but a different kind of bullying --- the kind inflicted on children by their parents. BEETLE BOY was inspired by a real boy who was completely under his father's control and trying to make the best of it until he could escape. Margaret lives in Grand Haven with her husband Richard Joanisse, and she is currently working on a new novel and a collection of essays about her childhood in Michigan.

Books by Margaret Willey

Beetle Boy

by Margaret Willey - Fiction, Young Adult 13+

When he was seven, Charlie Porter never intended to become the world's youngest published author. He just wanted his father to stop crying. So he told him a story about a talking beetle. But this tale not only made his father stop crying --- it made him start planning. The story became a book, and then it became school events and book festivals, a beetle costume, and a catchphrase: "I was born to write!" Now Charlie is 18, and the beetles still haunt his dreams. The childhood he never really had is about to end...but there's still a chance to have a story of his own.