No Alligators in Sight by Kirsten B. Feldman

In this coming of age novel, Lettie and Bert squeak by in a tiny town on Cape Cod, one parent an alcoholic and the other absent. After a string of bad decisions on Lettie’s part, their father ships them to their barely remembered mother for the summer, where they will learn hard lessons about themselves, their family, and their future by way of the Florida swamp. Throughout Lettie keeps her biting humor flowing, her razor-sharp pen at the ready, and her eye on her quest for a “normal” life.


I wrote No Alligators in Sight over the last several years because the characters were tired of walking around in my head and wanted to get out into the world. While it's true that there is some overlap between my life and Lettie and her family's lives, for example I grew up in Provincetown, I have a brother, and I love to swim, their lives are their own. As the hands that typed Lettie's tales, I hope you enjoy her journey.


"I was seven when she left us. That was six years ago. I could iron by then, so I guess she thought I was set. My brother though, he was three. He has a heart-shaped birthmark right between his eyes. If that couldn’t keep her here, what could? She moved to Florida with a man who sucked his teeth. And that was that."