Dear Tracey. I don't know why I'm answering your ad, to be honest. It's not like I'm into pen pals, but it's a boring Sunday here, wet, everyone's out, and I thought it'd be something different...

Dear Mandy. Thanks for writing. You write so well, much better than me. I put the ad in for a joke, like a dare, and yours was the only good answer...

Two teenage girls. An innocent beginning to friendship. Two complete strangers who get to know each other a little better each time a letter is written and answered.

Mandy has a dog with no name, an older sister, a creepy brother, and some boy problems. Tracey has a horse, two dogs and a cat, an older sister and brother, and a great boyfriend. They both have hopes and fears... and secrets.

"John Marsden's Letters From the Inside is, in a word, unforgettable. But his epistolary novel deserves more than one word. It is absolutely shattering as it brings to vivid life two teenage girls and then strangles your heart over what happens to their relationship... John Marsden is a major writer who deserves world-wide acclaim." - Robert Cormier.

John Marsden is one of the new breed of Australia's writers for young people: lively, fresh, provocative. Many young readers actually turn off the TV and leave their computer games to go and read John's books. And, for a number of them, they are the first books they voluntarily read.