Feb 14, 2026 By Jill Thurston 3 min read

Sarah Mitchell of Burgettstown penned the story, aimed for young adults ages 13-18, in a notebook nearly 20 years ago and then put it away. Over the next two decades she would take the book out, as time allowed, and work on it.

“There were years when I didn’t touch it, ” said Mitchell. “I had kids to raise. They came first,” she said.

Mitchell’s book, “Unwanted: Abandoned But Never Broken,” was published in 2025 and she had her first book signing at Barnes and Noble in Robinson Township on Jan. 17.

The book tells the story of a young woman named Sam, who is given a second chance following a childhood marked by abuse. After being sent to a home for troubled teens, Sam applies to Boys Town, a home for at-risk youth in Nebraska, because she has nowhere else to go and desires a fresh start. During the month she has to wait for a bed to open, she is taken in by a family, finds a passion for horses and love she’d never known.

Mitchell, a private home health care provider, originally penned the book while her oldest daughter Abbie was hospitalized for six weeks in 2008 after undergoing surgery.

“I was in the hospital for six weeks with nothing to do. So, with a spiral notebook and a pen, I wrote the book. Then I put it away, because I had kids to raise,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell and her husband, Ian, have three children, Jacob, 24, Abbie, 21, and Mackenzie, 18.

Every few years, she would work on the book. “When I took it back out, I typed it out on the computer. Then I joined Penn Writers and went to a few writing conferences,” Mitchell said.

She worked with an editor, made changes to the book and then put it away again. When daughter Abbie graduated high school, Mitchell pulled it back out and edited it again.

“There were two-year gaps when I didn’t touch it. The kids came first. I have no regrets,” she said.

Mitchell lives on an 80-acre farm, and in addition to her love for horses, she and her family train Newfoundland dogs for therapy use. Mitchell has written a children’s book (a series of seven are planned) about Morgan, her own dog who she takes weekly to Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh, called “Morgan the Goofy Therapy Newfie.”

Both books are self published through Wise Media Group and available on BarnesandNoble.com and Amazon.

Through social media marketing efforts, “Unwanted” received a following and Mitchell was invited for the book signing with Barnes and Noble in Robinson. “Unwanted” is the first of a three-book series.

“It’s a book about survival and finding the good. That’s my goal in life. I see the good everywhere I go, and I think that is a gift God gave me. When days are bad, and people around me are like, ‘Oh no,’ I’ll say, ‘but the sun is shining.’ And that is portrayed in the story. Sam goes through her battle in the beginning of ‘Why am I here?’ but finds the good.”

For more information on Mitchell’s books, go to sarahmbooks.com.