Verbena Colter knows she's bad news. Trouble from the get-go. How could she not be, with parents like hers? Her mother practically pickled her before she was even born, leaving Verbie to struggle with the effects of fetal alchol syndrome. And her father was just plain mean. Verbie wishes she could be somebody, anybody other than who she is. Enter Pooch, a flatlander boy visiting for the summer. When Pooch and his mom rent the house next door, Verbie takes the opportunity to be someone else entirely. And what starts out as a game leads Verbie into a surprising and heartwarming journey of self-discovery
Aurora weiß zwei Dinge: a) Die anderen Kinder halten sie für komisch und b) das macht nichts, denn sie hat Duck, ihren Hund und allerbesten Freund. Ihn stört es nicht, dass sie ihre Sätze gern zweiteilt und andere seltsame Angewohnheiten hat. Doch dann ist Duck plötzlich verschwunden und Auroras Eltern bekommen Besuch von einer jungen Frau namens Heidi. Die ist scheinbar genau das, was Aurora nicht ist: normal, beliebt, ein wahres Glückskind. Sie bietet ihre Hilfe an: bei der Suche nach Duck - und nach Auroras eigenem Glück.
Rain, Rain Go Away
It's raining, and Pip Squeak's roof is leaking. He tries to catch the water with pots, pans, cups, and cans -- he even tries using a shoe! But the drips and the drops just won't stop. What will Pip Squeak do?
From award-winning author Sarah Weeks comes the sweet story of a girl learning to cope with the loss of her mother.
Melody never knew her mother. She died just after Melody was born, and it's been just her and her father for nearly eleven years now. Compared to the stories she's heard of her mother's remarkable personality, Melody feels completely unremarkable.
And then her father starts acting mysterious. Determined to figure out what's wrong, Melody follows some leads to a nail salon, where she makes new friends, and even finds an old one from her mother's past. But friends aren't enough when Melody discovers that she's going to get a new stepmother, one she detests.
And what she wishes for more than anything . . . is to have her mother to talk to. So much for an eleventh birthday surprise, right?
Told with a generous helping of heart and humor as only Sarah Weeks can, HONEY tells the sweet story of a girl whose eleventh birthday brings the most important gift of all.
Jamie Reardon has always heard that bad things come in threes. So after his cat, Mister, dies, his father leaves, and his aunt Sapphy has an accident that causes her memory to develop a skip, Jamie hopes his life will go back to being as normal as cornflakes. But unfortunately there's one more bad thing in store for Jamie -- something he'd give anything to be able to forget -- and this one leaves him feeling like a stranger to himself. Jamie tries in vain to find the magic trigger that will help Sapphy's memory jump the scratch, like the needle on her favorite Frank Sinatra record, but in the end it's Aunt Sapphy who, along with a curious girl named Audrey Krouch, helps Jamie unravel the mysteries of memory and jump the scratch in his own life.
Sarah Weeks's poignant characters and powerful prose come together in a story that is both heart wrenching and inspiring -- another gem from the award-winning author of So B. It.
Award-winning author Sarah Weeks is critically acclaimed for her numerous best-selling books for children of all ages. In Jumping the Scratch, she tells the tale of Jamie Reardon, who has always been told that bad things happen in threes. So when his father leaves, his cat dies, and his Aunt Sapphy is in an accident that makes it impossible for her to create new memories, he figures life has to get better soon. Enter Audrey Krouch, who smells like onions, wears huge glasses without lenses, and claims to have ESP. As peculiar as she is, it is Audrey who helps Jamie turn his life around.
Grade Level: 3-4 Age Level: 8-9 Listening Level: Grade 3-4 Oggie Cooder has a talent. He chews and carves pieces of cheese into any shape he wants them to be. This is called charving. Oggie doesn't think his charving is anything special. In fact, most of the kids in his school think it's a little weird. But then a big TV show comes to town, looking for people who have weird talents. Suddenly, Oggie is Mr. Popular...especially with Donnica Perfecto, the girl across the street who wants to be famous, no matter what. Will Oggie be able to charve his way to the top? Is he ready to be a Big Cheese? Get ready for a fun, hilarious story about a charving champion you'll never forget.
Grade Level:2-3 Age Level:7-8 Listening Level: Grades 2-3 Oggie Cooder's charving has already taken him to the top of the world. (Charving, in case you don't know, involves chewing and carving pieces of cheese.) But there's one place Oggie Cooder has never been allowed to go: Donnica Perfecto's pool. This year might be different. Donnica's mother has made her invite Oggie to a pool party. And Oggie couldn't be more excited. Not only will he finally make it into the pool, but there's also going to be mini hot dogs and a juggling bear. The only problem? Donnica Perfecto does not want Oggie Cooder at her party. And she will do anything to stop him from coming!
When Alice's aunt Polly, The Pie Queen of Ipswitch, passes away, she takes with her the secret to her world-famous piecrust recipe. Or does she? In her will, Polly leaves the recipe to her extraordinarily fat, remarkably disagreeable cat, Lardo . . . and then leaves Lardo in the care of Alice. Suddenly, the whole town is wondering how you leave a recipe to a cat. Everyone wants to be the next big pie-contest winner, and it's making them pie-crazy. It's up to Alice and her friend Charlie to put the pieces together and discover the not-so-secret recipe for happiness: Friendship. Family. And the pleasure of doing something for the right reason. With PIE, acclaimed author Sarah Weeks has baked up a sweet and satisfying delight, as inviting as a warm pie on a cold day. You'll enjoy every last bite.
From award-winning author of Pie Sarah Weeks and debut author Gita Varadarajan comes a story that shows us the beautiful ways our lives end up being much more similar than we ever imagine.
Two boys -- one white, one Indian American -- gain strength from each other from afar as they struggle to navigate middle school, family, and friendships.
You couldn't really tell about Mama's brain just from looking at her, but it was obvious as soon as she spoke. She had a high voice, like a little girl's, and she only knew twenty-three words. I know this for a fact, because we kept a list of the things Mama said tacked to the inside of the kitchen cabinet. Most of the words were common ones, like good and more and hot, but there was one word only my mother said, soof.
Although she lives an unconventional lifestyle with her mentally disabled mother and their doting neighbor, Bernadette, Heidi has a lucky streak that has a way of pointing her in the right direction. When a mysterious word in her mother's vocabulary begins to haunt her, Heidi's thirst for the truth leads her on a cross-country journey in search of the secrets of her past.
A dramatic tour de force by the best-selling author of Regular Guy.
Now a major motion picture starring Alfre Woodard, Jessica Collins, John Heard, Jacinda Barrett, Cloris Leachman, and Talitha Bateman—in theaters October 2017!
From acclaimed author Sarah Weeks comes a touching coming-of-age story about a young girl who goes on a cross-country journey to discover the truth about her parents, which the New York Times called 'a remarkable novel.' Perfect for fans of Rebecca Stead's When You Reach Me and Ali Benjamin's The Thing About Jellyfish.
She doesn't know when her birthday is or who her father is. In fact, everything about Heidi and her mentally disabled mother's past is a mystery. When a strange word in her mother's vocabulary begins to haunt her, Heidi sets out on a cross-country journey in search of the secrets of her past.
Far away from home, pieces of her puzzling history come together. But it isn't until she learns to accept not knowing that Heidi truly arrives.
