Light and Air by Mindy Nichols Wendell

It’s 1935, and tuberculosis is ravaging the nation. Everyone is afraid of this deadly respiratory illness. But what happens when you actually have it?

When Halle and her mother both come down with TB, they are shunned—and then they are sent to the J.N. Adam Tuberculosis Hospital: far from home, far from family, far from the world.

Tucked away in the woods of upstate New York, the hospital is a closed and quiet place. But it is not, Halle learns, a prison. Free of her worried and difficult father for the first time in her life, she slowly discovers joy, family, and the healing power of honey on the children’s ward, where the girls on the floor become her confidantes and sisters. But when Mama suffers a lung hemorrhage, their entire future—and recovery—is thrown into question….

Light and Air deals tenderly and insightfully with isolation, quarantine, found family, and illness. Set in the fully realized world of a 1930s hospital, it offers a tender glimpse into a historical epidemic that has become more relatable than ever due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As Halle tries to warm her father’s coldness and learns to trust the girls and women of the hospital, and as she and her mother battle a disease that once paralyzed the country, a profound message of strength, hope, and healing emerges.

A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection

AUTHOR BIO:

Mindy Nichols Wendell writes middle grade historical fiction. Before beginning her writing career, Mindy taught writing and literature at SUNY Fredonia for more than thirty years. In 2019, Mindy received the State University of New York Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. She lives in western New York with her husband, Steve, a retired elementary school teacher. Light and Air is Mindy’s debut novel. Her second novel, California or Dust, will be out in the spring of 2026.  

***AUTHOR VISIT on MONDAY, MAY 19th @ 6:00 pm***

Social Media handles: 

Instagram: @mnwendell 

Facebook: Mindy Nichols Wendell 

Bluesky: @mnwendell.bsky.social 

Website: 

MindyNicholsWendell.com  

Publisher’s link 

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/738001/light-and-air-by-mindy-nichols-wendell/ 

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