Amber McRee Turner

Amber McRee Turner writes imaginative middle-grade fiction rooted in family, place, and the way children interpret loss. Circa Now, her debut novel, appeared from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers in 2014. Twelve-year-old Circa Monroe grows up helping in her father’s portrait studio, where he inserts unusual figures into altered photographs and invents stories for them. After his sudden death, a boy named Miles arrives without a clear past, and details from the photographs begin to echo through Circa’s life. Turner uses that mystery to explore grief, memory, friendship, and the wish that a picture might change what happened beyond its frame. Her Southern setting and playful visual premise keep the novel accessible while its emotional questions remain serious. Circa Now therefore introduces Turner as a writer who lets a quietly magical possibility develop from ordinary creative work, then tests it against a child’s need for truthful remembrance.