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Anela’s Club

by D. K. Yamashiro
Anela’s Club
“Let’s learn from yesterday and live for today. It’s the only way to move forward.” —Anela Lee

When Anela Lee’s brother, Jake, dies on the football field, her family is shattered. Her parents never wanted her, and without her biggest cheerleader, she withdraws into her pain and insecurities. Even school, once a refuge, means nothing anymore. Only one teacher refuses to give up on her, pushing her to enter an essay contest that gives her a shot at Harvard. Still, self-doubt holds Anela back.

Then a senator teaches her about the many world leaders who have used their childhood trauma to do great things. The hope that Anela can turn her pain into something beautiful gives her back her spark and encourages her to enter the contest. But does she have the confidence to share her essay in front of an audience?

Anela’s Club is a coming-of-age story about rising above tragedy and learning to view life through a lens of hope and love.
Pages: 206
Pub Date: 01-30-2023
Softcover: 17.95 979-8-88824-222-3
Hardcover: 24.95 979-8-88824-224-7

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The reviews are in…

  • “Anela’s journey is a testimony to how we all can rise from traumatic darkness to brilliant change and growth.”


    Joanne P. McCallie, 6x NCAA Women’s Basketball Coach of the Year, Duke University Author, Secret Warrior

  • “Touching, moving, human – and profoundly intelligent.”


    J. Mark Ramseyer, Mitsubishi Professor of Japanese Legal Studies, Harvard University

  • “Anela’s Club, at first, reads like playing checkers, but this is nothing less than a chess game on life. Enlightening and strong.”


    Dino Babers, ACC Football Coach of the Year, Syracuse University

As a teen, D. K. Yamashiro survived falling four hundred feet from a ridge in Hawaii, suffering severe brain injuries. Years of recovery involved a camel ride at the Pyramids of Giza, swimming in the Mediterranean Sea, hiking up Masada, sledding down the Great Wall of China, exploring underground caves in the Black Hills, and speaking to crowds in East Africa and Brazilian favelas. A master’s at Harvard and summer studies at Oxford preceded a PhD with research on childhood traumas of American presidents. Yamashiro resides in Brookline, Massachusetts, and is an affiliate at MIT.

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