MARLEY WON’T GIVE UP!
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By Blanche R. Dudley, Ed.D.
Illustrated by Lawrence R. Reynolds
Blanche Dudley Books, July 18, 2026
ISBN: 979-8-234-11190-6 (paperback)
ISBN: 979-8-234-13422-6 (ebook)
281 pages, ages 11-14
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Marley, a twelve-year-old student at Hopeville Middle School, is fighting several battles at once. She refuses to accept that her mother has gone missing during a secret military mission. Instead, Marley celebrates her mom’s courage in a school project to honor Women Warriors and sends hopeful but, as-yet, unanswered messages to her mom almost every day.
Meanwhile, she tries to ignore constant and hurtful bullying from the town’s meanest and richest girl, or at least to follow her grandmother’s advice and respond with her brain and not her fists. Now, Marley’s efforts to hide a growing but secret friendship with the town’s supposed witch and her strange son are no longer working. Soon the whole school will know the unusual way she has been trying to cope with her mom’s disappearance. Still, Marley refuses to back down and meets her toughest challenge with faith and friendship.