Editorial Content for Waiting for Augusta

From Jessica Lawson, the author of THE ACTUAL & TRUTHFUL ADVENTURES OF BECKY THATCHER and NOOKS & CRANNIES, comes WAITING FOR AUGUSTA, the story of 11-year-old Benjamin Putter.

Ben has a lump in his throat that he knows is a golf ball. It suddenly appeared after his father died, and just when Ben thinks life can’t get any crazier, his father’s ashes start speaking to him. This is not like the imaginary voices Ben has been hearing his whole life. This is not the trees talking to him, or the voice of the kitchen faucet. This is his dad’s voice coming from inside his urn. He tells Ben to run away to Augusta, Georgia, to scatter his ashes on the 18th hole of the famous Augusta National Golf Club on the last day of the Masters.

So Ben sets out to do just that.

“WAITING FOR AUGUSTA is heartwarming and endearing, with just the right amount of magic.”

On the way to Augusta, Ben picks up the mysterious runaway, Noni, as his traveling partner. Noni is tough, bossy and secretive about her past and where she’s going. Together, they make their way from Ben’s tiny hometown of Hilltop, Alabama, to Augusta. Their journey is met with twists and turns, bus crashes, coal trains, a borrowed truck and lightning storms. They lie, sneak and trick their way across thousands of miles, developing a sweet and caring friendship along the way.  

Ben and his father never understood one another. His father was around, but never really there for Ben. He spent his free time golfing and barbequing for their family’s BBQ joint. Now Ben is given a second chance to say all the things he wished he’d said to his father when he was alive. Not only is it Ben’s chance to make his dad proud, it’s his father’s chance to be there for his son.

Set in the rural south in 1972, WAITING FOR AUGUSTA not only deals with a boy’s complicated relationship with his deceased father, but also confronts issues of racism and segregation. Ben, a white boy, struggles with the guilt of not defending his best friend May, an African American girl, when she is harassed at their newly-integrated school. Ben’s journey is not just physical, but emotional. He learns that change comes from courage, and that the truth can be found in the most unexpected of places.

WAITING FOR AUGUSTA is heartwarming and endearing, with just the right amount of magic. It is a story of forgiveness and courage, friendship and family and unconditional, unexpected love. It is about believing in someone instead of just believing them.