Megan E. Freeman has been chosen as the 2025 Horace Mann Upstander Award recipient for her book Away (2025), published by Aladdin The Horace Mann Upstanders Award honors children’s literature that best exemplifies the ideals of social action and encourages young readers to become agents of change themselves by standing up to injustice.
A group of children investigate the threat that prompted large-scale evacuations in this powerful and dramatic companion novel to the New York Times bestselling ALONE.
When an imminent threat alert causes a midnight evacuation in Colorado, four kids relocated to the same shelter become unlikely friends. After they stumble onto evidence casting doubt on the legitimacy of the evacuation, they begin an investigation that causes them to question everything and everyone around them. Through a series of covert and courageous endeavors, the friends uncover the facts behind the “imminent threat” and must decide how— and if—they can expose the truth. Set in the same universe as Freeman’s bestselling novel ALONE and told in a variety of poetry and prose forms, AWAY is a companion novel sure to please fans of adventure and mystery stories alike.