Bowsher, Melodie

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Bowsher, Melodie

Personal

Born in Dodge City, KS; children: Mia, Luca. Education: Kansas State University, B.A.

Addresses

Home—San Francisco, CA. Agent—Kirby Kim, Vigliano Associates, 405 Park Ave., Ste. 1700, New York, NY 10022. E-mail—[email protected].

Career

Wall Street Journal, Dallas, TX, former reporter; has also worked in corporate communications in San Francisco, CA, and as a freelance business writer.

Awards, Honors

First-place award for investigative reporting, William Randolph Hearst Foundation.

Writings

My Lost and Found Life (novel), Bloomsbury Children's Books (New York, NY), 2006.

Sidelights

Journalist Melodie Bowsher's debut novel, My Lost and Found Life, tells the story of seventeen-year-old Ashley. Once rich and spoiled, Ashley is brought down to a more common economic level by her mother's misbehavior. "Debut author Bowsher has a great concept," commented a Kirkus Reviews critic. A homecoming queen and straight-A student with a prestigious college in her future, wealthy and popular Ashley finds her perfect lifestyle rapidly slipping away when her mother is accused of embezzling millions of dollars and then disappears. Abruptly poor and homeless, unsure of her mother's whereabouts, and shunned by the bright rich kids who used to be her friends, Ashley is forced to move into a grubby camper behind a gas station and take a job in the local coffee shop. Though her material existence has been diminished, Ashley soon finds that there are advantages to her new situation, including romance with the devilishly handsome Patrick and a new perspective on people from a side of life she has never known before. A Children's Bookwatch reviewer called My Lost and Found Life a "warm coming of age story," while Booklist reviewer Hazel Rochman remarked that "readers will be caught up in the riches-to-rags turn-around in a materialistic world."