Showing results by author "Sarah Weeks" in All Categories

Two boys - one white, one Indian American - gain strength from each other from afar as they struggle to navigate middle school, family, and friendships.

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.

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 23 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.

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.

All her life, Aurora has heard stories about Heidi and all the good luck she brought Aurora's family. Aurora, though, doesn't feel very lucky. The kids at school think she's weird. And she's starting to think her mom thinks she's weird, too. Especially compared to Heidi. On the eve of a visit from Heidi, more bad luck hits Aurora's family. There's a fire in their attic, destroying a good part of their house. And, even worse, Aurora's beloved dog goes missing. Aurora and her family have always believed in soof - Heidi's mom's word for love.

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.

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.

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.

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 Welt steht kopf. Nicht nur, dass sie ihren einzigen Freund wiederfinden muss, ihre Eltern bekommen auch noch Besuch von einer jungen Frau namens Heidi. Die ist scheinbar genau das, was Aurora nicht ist: normal, beliebt, ein wahres Glückskind.

Ein 12-jähriges Mädchen zieht los, die Vergangenheit zu erforschen und sich selbst darin zu finden. Mit Humor und Mitgefühl vorgelesen von Fritzi Haberlandt. Heidis Mutter kann, nach langem Üben, Dosen öffnen. Und sie kennt genau 23 Wörter, darunter "So Be It". Heidi weiß von ihr nicht viel mehr als ihren Namen. Dennoch ist das Leben mit ihrer geistig behinderten Mutter und der gemeinsamen Freundin Bernadette für sie das Normalste von der Welt. Fragen nach ihrer Herkunft stellt Heidi erst, als sie eines Tages Fotos findet, die ihre Mutter in einem Heim für Behinderte zeigen.