I emailed my cousin about our discussion of his book; here's some of his reply:
Yo dere,

Tell your group I appreciate them reading it. Tell them having Kara not leave was one of my biggest plot holes. I tried to fill it by pointing out how controlled she was by the adults in her life (mainly her mom). She would therefore have a hard time going against the wishes of any supervising adult, Tremblin included. As for Wade's reason for being there, I intentionally left it ambiguous. As for parents letting their kids; JoAnn's drama kids kind of inspired me. Their parents let them go to New York for a week with her. I guarantee that if some famous actor or dancer was holding an overnight contest, they'd be more than happy for their kids to attend.



Tell them it was really cool that they took the time to read and analyze it, and to pass their books along to any teens in their families