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This is a photo of Julie Anne Peters. I first came across her stories when I myself was a teenager,  finding my own place in my world. The first story of hers that I found was Keeping You a Secret, which I have read countless times over the years.
She currently lives in Lakewood Colorado with her partner, Sherri. Peters was a 5th grade school teacher for a short time, as well as working in computer programming/science before finally allowing herself the space to accept that writing was the career path for her. Peters writes a lot of coming-of-age stuff and tends to lean toward writing LGBT plotlines.

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I would say that the books that Peters writes are definitely geared more toward pleasure reading. I can see how the stories could be weaved into a lesson plan, used to teach something about life but overall I would definitely say her work is much for fun-reading.
It would be a lot more appropriate for someone to connect to outside of school, something that the reader could use to feel grounded and tied to something in their life. I think there would be roughly a 90% to 10% for readers to choose this as a story to read on their own.

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Peters has written over a dozen different books. These books are targeted for a variety of age groups. She has some written for early readers, from ages 6-9. Some of her books are for middle readers, ages 9-12, and then for older readers age 12+.

Each of the books I have included in the text set are for the older readers. I would say that Define 'Normal' is more appropriate for the younger of this set, while the other two would be better left for the higher end of the group.

The content material of Lies My Girlfriend Told Me and Keeping You a Secret seems more fitting for the readers who may be trying to find a piece of literature to connect to during their journey to find themselves. Define 'Normal' seems to be a great read for kids trying to understand the unfairness of life in certain situations.

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Define 'Normal' has received:
Sequoyah Book Award (2003), California Young Re`ader Medal (2003), Black-Eyed Susan Book Award (2003)

Between Mom and Jo received:
Lamdba Literary Award (2007)

Peters has been nominated for many other awards as well over the years that, while she did not win the award, show the value of her works.

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Peters, J.A., (2000) Define 'normal'. New York City, NY. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

Define 'Normal' is a story told from the perspective of our protagonist, Antonia. She is in a peer-mentoring program at her middle school in which she is paired with Jazz. Antonia is well liked by her teachers, gets good grades and 'has it all'... or so it would seem. Jazz starts to burrow under the surface, much to Antonia's dismay. Jazz is a punk. She wears black clothes and dark makeup. She is not on the good side of her teachers. Antonia cannot imagine possibly having anything in common with this girl. She soon finds out though the Jazz might be the one and only person she can turn to when her world really starts to fall apart.

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Peters, J.A., (2014) Lies my girlfriend told me. New York City, NY. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

Lies My Girlfriend Told Me is a story about the process of grieving the death of a loved one. It is about dealing with the aftermath of cleaning up after the mess left behind by someone who has been betraying you. Alix is left behind to figure things out when Swan dies. She starts finding weird clues pointing to Swan's secret life when she goes through her room after Swan's sudden death. Alix meets Liana and through their connection finally comes to realize her own self-worth.

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Peters, J.A., (2003) Keeping you a secret. New York City, NY. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

Keeping You a Secret follows the self-discovery and coming out of Holland. On the outside, Holland has it all; a great boyfriend, good friends, and a fast track into an Ivy League school. When Holland meets Cece, her whole world is turned upside down. She has to learn who she really is, and accept that, while dealing with the process of grieving the loss of the person she used to once be.