Tommy Hays

Tommy Hays’s first middle grade novel, What I Came to Tell You, is about a boy named Grover who, ever since his mother died earlier in the year, spends all his spare time in his beloved bamboo grove near his house, weaving leaves into elaborate tapestries that he then delivers to his mother’s grave. The idea for the book came from when Hays’s own children used to spend hours in what they called the Bamboo Forest, a small stand of bamboo in their neighbor’s yard. What I Came to Tell You was recently chosen as a Fall 2013 Okra Pick by the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) as one of the books booksellers are most eager to sell. Hays has written three adult novels as well, his most recent being The Pleasure Was Mine, which has been used in numerous community reads and was read on NPR’s Radio Reader. For more about the author please visit his website – www.tommyhays.com.