Available in March, 2025

In the fall of 1973, Caroline Black announces to her bewildered parents that she is leaving Laurel Academy for Girls and transferring to her local public school, Hollywood High. Initially, Caroline is overwhelmed. The three-thousand students speak over forty languages. The economic spectrum ranges from kids in wealthy homes to runaways living on the streets. In Caroline’s first few weeks of tenth grade, a knife fight breaks out in the library, she volunteers to tutor struggling students and is immediately assigned the leader of a gang, and she witnesses a gay student bullied by a pack of boys.

Growing up a nerd in a film industry family, Caroline is used to being an outsider. At her new school, she finds a diverse group of friends and begins to realize that she belongs. But Hollywood High’s many different communities don’t easily coexist. When her LGBTQ+ friends are targeted, she initially has no idea what to do. Still, she feels compelled to take a risk and step forward. When she unexpectedly becomes a target, she discovers hidden strengths she never imagined.

Hollywood Pride was originally published in 2013 as Hollywood High: Achieve the Honorable. The novel was rewritten, including a new cover and title, to address policies targeting LGBTQ+, systemic racial bigotry in education, and bullying. The novel also offers several paths to becoming an ally and is ultimately about self discovery and the power of friendship.

Click HERE to read the first chapter.