Loretta Ellsworth will sign her latest young adult novel, In Search of Mockingbird, Saturday, June 23, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., at Page & Palette Bookstore in Fairhope. The American Library Association has nominated Ellsworth’s book as a Teen’s Top 10 Book.

In Search of Mockingbird tells the story of a teen’s yearning to connect to her long-deceased mother. The book, To Kill a Mockingbird, is all that connects Erin to her mother, who died when she was a baby.

On the eve of her 16th birthday, she decides to find out how much she can really learn about her mother from a tattered copy of the famous novel.

Erin begins a bus journey from her home in Minnesota to Alabama in search of the reclusive Harper Lee.

In a novel full of quirky characters, strange coincidences and on-the-road adventures, Ellsworth deftly traces a unique voyage of self-discovery.

“With a first-person narrative that is eloquent and credible, and prose that is restrained and economical, the story’s searching for-mother theme should make it especially appealing to older fans of Kate DiCamillo’s Because of Winn Dixie (2000) and Phyllis Reynolds Naylor’s ‘Alice’ books. An engaging road trip,” comments Kirkus Reviews.

Ellsworth’s first book, The Shrouding Woman, is a historical novel that was a Rebecca Caudill nominee and was named to the Amelia Bloomer Project List.

The author, a former schoolteacher and mother of four grown children, lives in Lakeville, Minn.

For more information, contact Page & Palette at (251) 928-5295 or visit www.pageandpalette.com.

Page & Palette is located at 32 S. Section Street in Fairhope.