Melody Carlson’s new novel Trapped (NavPress) delves into the life of a grade-A student whose life spins out of control. When her grades start to suffer, she sees only one option—cheating. Melody says, “When I heard statistics reporting that 80 percent of the country’s best students have participated in academic cheating, I got curious. And naturally I wanted to write a story about it. I wanted answers to these questions: what happens when a student knows peers are cheating; what happens when a student gives in to cheating; and what happens when a student gets caught? To me those were the ingredients of a good teen novel. That’s how Trapped was conceived.”

Check out more great articles

About The Author

Melody Carlson has written more than 200 books for teens, women, and children. Before publishing, Melody traveled around the world, volunteered in teen ministry, taught preschool, raised two sons, and worked briefly in interior design and later in international adoption. "I think real-life experiences inspire the best fiction," she says. Her wide variety of books seems to prove this theory.