Amy Haywood Hughes

ABOUT THE BOOK

Perfect for fans of Marie Benedict and Delia Owens, this atmospheric and historical southern novel is inspired by Girl Scouts founder Juliette Gordon Low, who found inner strength, empowerment and inspiration during one magical Savannah summer.

For Daisy Gordon, 1869 is the best summer ever, regardless of the complexities of post–Civil War life in the Reconstruction Era. Every day on Savannah’s Isle of Hope, she can fish, crab, ride horses, and explore the marsh and river with her new friend Sammy Moore, who’s the most interesting person she’s ever met. But when her workaholic father learns Sammy lives at Bethesda Orphans Home, he forbids her from further adventures, making Daisy wonder: Does her father really object to their friendship, or is it that he can’t accept his unconventional, strong-willed daughter growing into a young woman? When a boating mishap leaves her and her siblings in danger, Mr. Gordon and Sammy must team up to find them before the tide sweeps the tiny boat out to sea.

A fictional glimpse into the childhood and heart of Juliette “Daisy” Gordon Low—the visionary optimist who challenged social norms in 1912 and forever changed what girls were “allowed” to do—Isle of Hope Summer is a story of adventure, friendship, self-discovery, and an homage to the Girl Scouts founder’s legacy of empowerment, which continues to inspire girls and women worldwide.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Amy Haywood Hughes is a Savannah-based novelist, columnist, and lobbyist with a journalism degree from the University of Georgia and an MBA from Mercer University. As owner of Hughes Public Affairs, she advocates for her clients’ legislative and regulatory priorities. A lifelong Girl Scout, Amy and her husband, Lee, have three sons, a grandson, and a granddaughter who love the feel of marsh mud squishing through their toes. She lives in coastal Georgia on the Isle of Hope, where dolphins swim through her backyard daily.

TALKING POINTS

• The untold girlhood of an icon: Most people know Juliette Gordon Low as the woman who founded the Girl Scouts in 1912, but few know her as “Daisy,” a headstrong young woman growing up in Reconstruction-era Savannah. Amy Haywood Hughes shows how one fictionalized childhood summer plants the seeds of the independence and empowerment Low would later build into an international movement.
• A real place you can still visit: The novel is set on Savannah’s Isle of Hope, where Amy Haywood Hughes actually lives—the same marsh, river, and landscape her characters explore. She can talk about writing a historical novel set in her own backyard and what it’s like to research a real family’s history from inside their former neighborhood.
• Friendship across the color and class lines of Reconstruction: Daisy’s friendships with Sammy Moore, a boy from Bethesda Orphans Home, and Izzy Grey, a formerly enslaved young woman, gives Amy Haywood Hughes an entry point to discuss the social hierarchies of post–Civil War Savannah, and how children’s friendships could cross boundaries adults enforced.
• A 100-year legacy impacting millions: Juliette Gordon Low died one hundred years ago on January 17, 1927, leaving a legacy of over 50 million American women who have been involved in Girl Scouts. Amy Haywood Hughes can speak about the personal hardships, eccentricities, and handicaps which motivated Juliette Gordon Low at the age of 52 to start the Girl Scouts of the USA as an inclusive organization for all girls.
• A father-daughter story about who girls were “allowed” to be: Mr. Gordon’s objection to Daisy’s friendship—and to her unconventional, strong-willed nature—foreshadows the very norms Juliette Gordon Low would spend her adult life dismantling. Amy Haywood Hughes can discuss how she used a single fraught summer to dramatize the tension between a Victorian father’s expectations and a daughter who wouldn’t be confined by them.
• For readers of Marie Benedict and Delia Owens: Amy Haywood Hughes writes in the tradition of atmospheric, women-centered historical fiction that reclaims real women’s stories—she can speak to the research and craft choices behind fictionalizing a real historical figure’s childhood.
• A lifelong Girl Scout writing the founder’s origin story: Amy Haywood Hughes is herself a lifelong Girl Scout. She can talk about what it meant to write a fictional account of the founder’s childhood as someone who grew up inside the organization Low created.
• From lobbyist to novelist: With a background in journalism, an MBA, and a career running her own public affairs firm, Amy Haywood Hughes brings a researcher’s rigor to historical fiction, she can discuss the pivot from advocacy work to writing a Reconstruction-era novel.