Middle Grade and YA Author, Ali Terese shares her chaotically funny voice and community-oriented message, in FREE PERIOD, a cry of protest spotlighting both the undeserved shame young people feel around menstruation and the importance of friendship to all who experience it. Best friends Helen and Gracie are pranking their way through middle school when a stinky stunt lands them in the front office — again. Because nothing else has curbed their chaos, the principal orders the best friends to do the unthinkable: care about something, anything, to make them stop! So, they join the school’s Community Action Club with plans to do as little as humanly possible. But when Helen is caught unprepared by an early period and bleeds through her pants — they were gold lamé! — the girls take over the club’s campaign for maxi pads in bathrooms for all students who menstruate. In the name of period equity, the two friends use everything from over-the-top baked goods to glitter gluing for change. But nothing can prepare them for a clueless school board (ew), an annoying little sister (ugh), and crushes (oh my!). As Helen and Gracie find themselves closer to change and in deeper trouble than ever before, they must decide if they care enough to keep going . . . even if it costs them their friendship.”