Author: Daisy May Johnson

Daisy May Johnson is a writer, librarian, and blogger with a particular interest in children’s literature and classic school stories. How to Be Brave begins her School of the Good Sisters sequence. Calla North agrees to attend the unconventional boarding school when her mother, Elizabeth, travels to the Amazon to study a rare duck. At school, Calla finds strict new leadership, rebellious students, mysterious notes, secret passages, plentiful baked treats, and friends willing to act when Elizabeth disappears. Pushkin Children’s Books released it in 2021, followed by How to Be True and How to Be Free. Johnson balances the familiar pleasures of a boarding-school adventure with a modern emphasis on resourceful girls, found family, and collective courage. Her playful use of footnotes gives the narrator a lively presence inside the action. Friendship, puzzles, and gentle comic disorder lead to a view of bravery grounded in asking for help and choosing to help others.