Patience is for people without worlds to conquer. I’m practically a teen, and I have zero patience.

Surviving sixth grade is tough enough with an annoying older brother, a best friend acting distant, and schoolwork. After adding instructive kissing games and the torturous wait for a real date with her biggest crush, Darla is perpetually torn between behaving like an adult and throwing temper tantrums.

Games of flashlight tag, and the crazy cat lady roaming Shiloh Farms in a “demon bus,” serve as distractions during her parents’ quarrels and her anxiety about show choir auditions. Yet the more Darla waits for her adulthood to begin, the more she learns that summoning patience won’t be the hardest part of being eleven.

“This novel has the potential to be to a modern audience what [Judy] Blume’s works were to girls of the '70s and '80s, and its blunt honesty and relevant topics make it the preferable choice.” (AvidEye)

Evolved Publishing presents a frank and funny look at the path to adulthood, in the first book of the Darla Decker Diaries series, which takes us on a journey of love, loss, and the nitty-gritty of growing up as seen through Darla Decker’s eyes. [DRM-Free]

“In Darla, McHugh has created a character that is dynamic and interesting and while I don’t pretend in any way to really know the mindset of a young, pre-teen girl, I read the prose and I feel like I am hearing the voice of a child. Not the perfected, cartoonized version of a child, not as simple fodder for the story, but as a genuine, three-dimensional, real child.” (C. Clark, Author)