Meg Eden Kuyatt teaches creative writing at colleges and writing centers. She is the author of the 2021 Towson Prize for Literature winning poetry collection “Drowning in the Floating World” and the forthcoming “obsolete hill” (Fernwood Press, 2026) and children’s novels including the Schneider Family Book Award Honor-winning “Good Different,” and “The Girl in the Walls” (Scholastic, 2025). Find her online at megedenbooks.com.
There’s a ghost in the walls, and V must decide if it is an ally or an enemy. The wrong decision could destroy her and her family.
From Schneider Honor Award winning author Meg Eden Kuyatt comes a chilling and insightful novel-in-verse.
After a hard school year, V has been sent to her Grandma Jojo’s house for the summer in order to get away from it all. But unlike neurodivergent, artistic, sock-collecting V, Jojo is uptight, critical, and obsessed with her spotless house. She doesn’t get V at all. V is sure she’s doomed to have the worst summer ever.
Then V starts hearing noises from inside the walls of the house… Knocks, the sounds of a girl crying, and voices echoing in the night.
When V finds a ghostly girl hiding in the walls, they seem to have an immediate connection. This might be V’s chance to get back at her perfect grandmother by messing with her just a little bit.
But the buried secrets go much deeper — and are much more dangerous — than V even suspects. And they threaten to swallow her and her family whole if she can’t find a way to uncover the truth of the girl before it’s too late.
A contemporary novel-in-verse with a ghostly twist by the author of Good Different, this book is about the power — and danger — of secrets. The Girl in the Walls will grab you and not let go until the very last page.
Praise for The Girl in the Walls:
A Junior Library Guild Selection
“This book will give you shivers, like looking in a mirror too long. It’s a stunning, healing work.” — Ann Clare LeZotte, Schneider Award-winning author of Deer Run Home
“Meg Eden Kuyatt’s latest book is more than an entertaining ghost story with a mysterious twist; it’s also an ode to the importance of openness.” — Padma Venkatraman, Walter Award Winning Author of The Bridge Home
“Raw, honest, and mesmerizing! Kuyatt takes us through a dizzying, darkly supernatural journey — evocative of Coraline and Doll Bones — with emotion rooted in very real autistic trauma. I was riveted!” — Sally J. Pla, Schneider Award-winning author of The Fire, the Water, and Maudie McGinn
“The perfect story for anyone who has struggled to be seen or understand others.” — Ally Malinenko, Bram Stoker finalist for This Appearing House
“An insightful, tense tale of family and self acceptance.” — Kirkus Reviews
“An eerie, emotional exploration of the way family haunts us and―with luck and care―heals us.” — School Library Journal
Spooky Middle Grade 