Messed Up

A fifteen-year-old Mexican American has experienced a series of tough breaks before finding himself completely on his own. He decides to try to keep his lack of a home a secret from his school while working hard and staying out of trouble.


Janet Nichols Lynch, born and raised in Sacramento, California, is the author of ten books. Her upcoming YA novel MY BEAUTIFUL HIPPIE (Holiday House, 2013) is set in the Haight-Ashbury during 1967-8. RACING CALIFORNIA (Holiday House 2012) is about the Amgen Tour of California, the most prestigious professional cycling stage race in the U.S. Her other works include three other YA novels, ADDICTED TO HER (Holiday House 2010), MESSED UP (Holiday House, 2009) and PEACE IS A FOUR-LETTER WORD (Heyday, 2005), a mainstream novel CHEST PAINS (Bridge Works, 2009), a short story collection, WHERE WORDS LEAVE OFF MUSIC BEGINS (iUniverse, 2004), two nonfiction books about music for young readers, AMERICAN MUSIC MAKERS: An Introduction to American Composers (Walker, 1990) and WOMEN MUSIC MAKERS: An Introduction to Women Composers (Walker, 1992), and the juvenile novel CASEY WOOSTER'S PET CARE SERVICE (Atheneum, 1993). 


In 1976, Janet began her writing career as a cycling journalist, reporting for Competitive Cycling, Bike World, Bicycling, Women's Sports, and Young Athlete. In 1984 her first published short story appeared in The New Yorker, and since then her fiction has been included in Seventeen, The San Joaquin Review, The Baltimore Review, Confrontation, Writer's Forum, and the anthology of California writers Highway 99: a Literary Journey through California's Great Central Valley. For the past thirteen years, Janet has read her fiction on Valley Public Radio's (KVPR, Fresno and KVPX Bakersfield FM 89.3)Valley Writers Read, hosted by Franz Weinschenk.


Janet received a B.A. in Music from California State University, Sacramento, a Master of Music Degree in Piano from Arizona State University, and a M.F.A. in Creative Writing from California State University, Fresno, where she won the 2003 Outstanding Thesis Award for the College of Arts and Humanities. Her YA novel MESSED UP won an ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers and a VOYA Top of the Top Shelf for Middle Grade Fiction. She has taught music at De Anza College and Skyline College and music and English at College of the Sequoias; English at Divisadero Middle School, and currently she teaches English and World History at El Diamante High School. She competes in marathons and triathlons and has raced bicycles and cycle-toured in the U.S. and Europe. Recently she completed her first Half Ironman. She lives in Visalia with her husband, Timothy; they have two grown children Caitlin and Sean.