Gina is the author of several young adult and middle grade books, including Flutter and Indigo, both published by Random House, Flower Moon from Sky Pony Press, and award-wining Trusting True North published by Shadow Mountain. Gina loves writing for kids and has worked as both a classroom teacher and a children’s library assistant. Now, Gina works as an editor at the Great Books Foundation in Chicago.
False Friends, her newest middle grade novel, is also set in Chicago, where eleven-year-old John must spend a summer with his eccentric Swedish grandfather at his creepy Chicago manse, complete with resident ghost stories, a terrifying pet crow, and a serious case of the general creeps. While solving a looming, gothic mystery, John is also just a normal, lonely, tender-hearted boy searching for a friend—one of the many reasons this book is so close to Gina’s heart. It blends so many things that are important to Gina: Nordic folktales, puzzles, a smidge of magic, her Swedish history, the city of Chicago, the topic of anxiety, the thrill of over-imagination, and that central question: what makes a true and real friend?
Gina holds a master’s degree in creative writing from DePaul University, and she lives in a suburb outside Chicago with her husband, three kids, and two spoiled cats. She is inspired to write for children and young adults because they are, in her opinion, the very best kinds of people. She admires their courage and candor, and how they are always ready to tackle big subjects. In her writing, Gina delights in weaving ideas that skirt the edge of the impossible into her mostly realistic settings. She believes that this is where the best stories lie: in that ever-so-gray area between what is real and what … might be.
You can visit Gina at ginalinko.com
Regal House Publishing is proud to bring you Gina Linko’s False Friends in the fall of 2027.
