Carrie Firestone’s fourth middle-grade novel, The First Rule of Climate Club, comes out in paperback on July 4th.

An Ilion High School alum and daughter of Little Falls native and HCCC Professor Emeritus Ray Lenarcic, Firestone’s other novels (Dress Coded, The Unlikelies, and The Loose Ends List) received 5-Star reviews from the N.Y. Times, Booklist, and School Library Journal among others. As for Climate Change, check out the following synopsis:

When Mary Kate Murphy joins a science class focused on climate change, she becomes aware of lots of things she never noticed before about her small suburban town: – Kids waste tons of food at school without a second thought; – Parents leave their cars running in the pickup lane all the time; – People buy lots of clothes they don’t really need; – Some of her friends who live in the city and are bused to her school don’t always feel included; – And the mayor isn’t willing to listen to new ideas for fixing it all.

Mary Kate and her friends have big plans to bring lasting change to their community and beyond. Because now is the time for young people to lead and for the leaders to follow or get out of the way.

A former New York City high school teacher, Carrie resides in Avon, Connecticut, with her husband, Dr. Michael (Radiologist), and daughters, Emily and Lauren.

She often returns to a valley “I’ll always love” and reads mylittlefalls.com, as indicated by her rave response to her dad regarding Mr. Kasmersky’s recent outstanding trip down memory lane regarding the city. Her father commented-“Local middle-grade teachers ought to get a copy. I think their students would love it. Get ahold of me, and I’ll get you one. And Carrie loves meeting students and discussing her writings.”