Frances O'Roark Dowell

Middle-schooler Isabelle Bean follows a mouse's squeak into a closet and falls into a parallel universe where the children believe she is the witch they have feared for years, finally come to devour them.

Twelve-year-olds Kate and Marylin, friends since preschool, draw further apart as Marylin becomes involved in student government and cheerleading, while Kate wants to play guitar and write songs, and both develop unlikely friendships with other girls and boys.

The quilting novel Marianne Fons calls "a truly enjoyable read" about "the power of quilts to connect, heal, and restore the soul..."

When Emma Byrd moves into the house of her dreams in the small mountain community of Sweet Anne's Gap, she knows that making friends may prove to be her biggest challenge. Her husband loves his new job and her kids are finding their way at school. But Emma — no natural when it comes to talking to strangers

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Because living with "modern-hippy" parents on a goat farm means fourteen-year-old Janie Gorman cannot have a normal high school life, she tries joining Jam Band, making friends with Monster, and spending time with elderly former civil rights workers.

From the author of Birds in the Air, a touching, big-hearted collection of short stories about women whose lives revolve around family, friends and quilt-making. "This collection presents the cozy comfort of characters we quilters easily recognize and relate to, but goes far deeper," writes Marianne Fons. "I was moved to tears repeatedly. Dowell's five short narratives are about the joys and sorrows inherent in the human condition — but with

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Marylin and Kate have been friends since nursery school, but when Marylin becomes a middle school cheerleader and Kate begins to develop other interests, their relationship is put to the test.

Since the death of his mother, Tobin's family life and school life have been in disarray, but after he starts raising chickens with his seventh-grade classmate, Henry, everything starts to fall into place. Tobin McCauley's got a near-certifiable grandmother, a pack of juvenile-delinquent siblings, and a dad who's not going to win father of the year any time soon. To top it off, Tobin's only friend truly believes that the study of chickens will reveal...

"An instructional book on how to write a story from bestselling author Frances O'Roark Dowell"-- Provided by publisher.

When seven-year-old Sam Graham, eager for some spending money, volunteers to look after a neighbor's chickens, the experience inspires him to get his own chicken--a special bird named Helga.

Second-grader Sam Graham wants a cell phone to do research and share information but when his parents say no, he devises a new plan that starts a fad at school.