In 2012 THE SACK was nominated for The Spirit of Texas award as a best book for middle school students. You can't deny the music... Althea is trapped in a reclusive commune where she is forced to wear a sack-like garment according to the restrictive laws set down by inflexible elders. But growing inside of her is the 'music', a stirring rhythm demanding that she dance. When Miss LaForge contrives Althea's escape to study at the sack-free Institute of the Arts, she hides the truth of her scholarship from her parents and the elders to embark upon the adventure of her life. Her joy soon ends though, when someone writes about her peerless dance performance. She is whisked home to marry a dominating elder and soon realizes that if she doesn't escape the commune, she may lose her last opportunity for freedom . . . as well as her life.