Name: Robert Beatty Author Event
Start: 2025-05-10T14:00:00-04:00
Location: Pack Memorial Library

Join Robert Beatty, author of the #1 best-selling SERAFINA SERIES, Saturday, May 10, for an Author Presentation and Book Signing Event sponsored by Pack Friends of the Library.
Beatty will discuss his new book, SYLVIA DOE AND THE 100-YEAR FLOOD, a nature-based mystery-adventure set in the Blue Ridge Mountains just outside of Asheville about an orphaned girl and the hurricane that changes the course of her life forever. He'll share the book trailer, filmed on location last summer in Marshall and Hot Springs, and talk about the inspiration for the book and the stunning timing of its national release just days after the devastating, real-life flooding in Western North Carolina caused by Hurricane Helene. The presentation is followed by a Q&A with the audience and book signing.
The event is free to attend. Malaprop's Bookstore will be on site selling Beatty's books, including SYLVIA DOE and titles from the SERAFINA and WILLA series. For more information, call 828-250-4721.
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ABOUT SYLVIA DOE AND THE 100-YEAR FLOOD
Sylvia Doe doesn't have parents or other family. She doesn't know where she was born or the people she came from. She doesn't even know her real last name. Sylvia has lived at the Highground Home for Children for as long as she can remember. Whenever the administrators try to place her with a foster family, she runs away — back to Mason, Highground's caretaker and her best friend. The only place she feels like she belongs is with him and the horses he has taught her to love.
When Hurricane Jessamine causes the remote mountain valley where she lives to flood, Sylvia must rescue her beloved horses. But she begins to encounter strange and wondrous things floating down the river. Glittering gemstones and wild animals that don't belong — everything's out of place. Then she spots an unconscious boy floating in the water. As she drags him onto the shore and their adventure together begins, Sylvia wonders who he is and where he came from. And why does she feel such a strong connection to this mysterious boy?
Author and Newbery Medal winner Kwame Alexander called SYLVIA DOE, "Magical realism at its best!"
Both Kirkus and Publishers Weekly awarded SYLVIA DOE with a prestigious STARRED REVIEW. Kirkus said: “Adventurous and suspenseful, this story pairs environmental science content with a genre-blurring mystery. Field guide–style illustrations of the animals that Sylvia encounters on her journey add a valuable learning component that emphasizes the ecological themes present throughout the book. A page-turner that creatively explores resonant themes.”
ABOUT ROBERT BEATTY
Robert Beatty is the #1 New York Times best-selling author of the Serafina Series, the Willa Series, and Sylvia Doe — all published by Disney-Hyperion. Loved by young readers and adults alike, his books are being taught in over a thousand classrooms nationwide and have been translated into over 20 languages across the world. Over ONE MILLION of his books have been sold.
The award-winning Serafina Series is a spooky mystery-thriller about a brave and unusual cat-like girl who lives secretly in the basement of the grand Biltmore Estate, surrounded by the opulence of the Gilded Age and the rugged beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Serafina and the Black Cloak, the first book in the series, won the Southern Book Prize in 2016. All four books in the series became #1 New York Times bestsellers.
Beatty's second project was the #1 New York Times best-selling Willa of the Wood Series, the story of a young forest girl with ancient magical powers who struggles for survival and understanding in the Great Smoky Mountains. The Willa books are in the early stages of being developed into a live action television series by Lionsgate.
Robert Beatty lives in the mountains of Asheville, NC, with his wife and three daughters, who help create and refine his stories. He writes full-time now, but in the past, Beatty was one of the early pioneers of cloud computing, the founder/CEO of Plex Systems, the co-founder of Beatty Robotics, and the chairman/CTO of Narrative Magazine. In 2007, he was named an Entrepreneur of the Year.
On the inspiration for his writing, Robert said, “My books are inspired by my desire to write stories about heroic young girls for my three daughters."