About the Book When I First Knew is Abby Harper’s story of growing up a lesbian in suburban Detroit in the 1950s. It is told through letters Abby writes to an imaginary friend over seven years. In an early letter Abby writes that she is permitted only to have a girl’s softball that is as big as a grapefruit and doesn’t fit in a mitt. Later, she is prohibited from playing football in her backyard with her brother and father, baseball with the boys at the park where she is a star, and she is punished for being a natural on the basketball court by a mother who shames her with threats and silence. Yet, Abby flourishes as a bicycle sleuth, tracking down the identity of someone who met a tragic end. In the process, Abby makes a lifelong friend and rights a wrong as her favorite detective, Nancy Drew, does. Alden’s title, When I First Knew, answers the question with brutal honesty and heartwarming detail that is reminiscent of Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird and Anne in The Diary of Anne Frank. Reviews: “Alden has told a convincing, true-to-life story that is sometimes painful and more often inspiring. And Affecting novel about a determined girl with guts” \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKirkus Review “I was so moved after reading this story and with the author who wrote it, I wanted to know more…I didn’t want to say good-bye [to] Abby Harper…The way in which our little heroine, Abby, justifies and understands her friends hurtful behavior toward her is mature beyond [her] years.” Elyse Walters “What a fine—and funny!—book. [When I First Knew] is almost a nod to the Labors of Hercules, though Abby carries a football and a forest green velvet coat, not a club and a lion-skin! There’s not a living person it doesn’t “speak to.” Linda W. Hobson, former Exec. Director, North Carolina Writers’ Network