I Have the Right To

March 12, 2018
In this honest and raw memoir, Prout shares her experience as a 15-year-old victim of sexual assault by an older student at New Hampshire's St. Paul's School in 2014. With a sometimes confusing structure, Prout chronicles her first (and final) year at the boarding school. Leading up to the assault, she writes about battling homesickness, navigating a rocky friendship, and struggling to find her place at a school where, she perceives, "everything was about status, tradition, and hierarchyâand guys ruled all three." She also reflects on surviving a terrifying earthquake in Tokyo in 2011, where she temporarily lived with her family. Prout's descriptions of her assault and its crushing emotional aftermath (involving self-doubt, guilt, shame, peer ostracizing, and cyber-bullying) and the agonizing, widely publicized trial that resulted in her assailant's conviction on some, but not all, charges brought against him, are wrenching and painful. Readers will take away a deep appreciation and admiration for Prout's resilience as she transitions into a resolute crusader for the empowerment of victims of sexual violenceâand for its prevention. Ages 14-up. Agent: Abigail Samoun, Red Fox Literary.

May 28, 2018
A young survivor of sexual assault poignantly recounts the trauma of her experience in the audio edition of her memoir. Prout was 15 years old when she was sexually assaulted by a senior at her prep school, St. Paul’s School—and there are times in this heartfelt narration where her vulnerability is on full display. Her voice breaks when describing the rape and when she tells of the moment she first realized she could be a voice for survivors. Mostly, though, the now college-age Prout comes across as strong, capable, and rightly angry—especially when telling of the many ways people affiliated with the school attempted to shame her into silence and rallied around her attacker by helping to fund his legal defense. Prout’s performance is natural and unforced, alternating between the gentle tones she reserves to describe the support of various family members and the fierce, uncompromising pitch she adopts when detailing the abuse and its chilling aftermath. The audiobook offers some bonus content at the end: Prout’s mother reads her own afterword of advice for victims and their families, and coauthor Abelson, a Boston Globe reporter, offers behind-the-scenes glimpses of the book’s creation. This confident audio adaptation reflects both the strength and the fragility of its young author and narrator. Ages 14–up. A S&S/McElderry hardcover.