(HarperCollins, 1982) and Published in paperback by Scholastic.
Lizzie Silver wants a pet tarantula more than anything in the world. Her attempts to raise money to buy one result in a series of adventures and misadventures, including a missing wedding ring and a stint as a magician’s assistant.
Illustrations by Leigh Grant.
(Harper & Row, 1981)
In 1968, Nina Ritter returns from her junior year abroad at Reading University, England to New York, where things have radically changed. Her friends, The Whole Sick Crew, are wilder now. Their ringleader, Aviva, has joined a rock band, and they are all experimenting with sex and drugs. Nina, still in love with the poetic Welsh boyfriend she had to leave behind, is both attracted and repelled by this new world. It takes some new friends – Ruth, a committed Hispanic teacher, Billy, a dancer struggling with the specter of Vietnam, and especially Floyd, a brilliant Black activist – to force Nina herself to change from a self-involved romantic to a socially responsible woman.
(Harper & Row, 1981)
A visit to a British country fair, in verse, with music.
Illustrated by Trinka Hakes Noble.
(Prentice-Hall, 1981)
Everything you ever wanted to know about the allium family.
Illustrations by Marian Parry.
(HarperCollins, 1978)
Eleven-year-old Ellie Simon is going to have heart surgery. The novel tells of her stay in the hospital, the people she meets, and how she gets through this difficult time.
Illustrations by Leigh Grant.
(Dutton, 1978)
Rachel tries different plans to get people to notice her.
Illustrated by Steven Kellogg.
(Disney-Hyperion, 1993)
Twelve-year-old Wheel Wiggins is the head honcho of his neighborhood. Every year he masterminds the town’s 4th of July extravaganza. But this time he’s stuck for an idea and suffering from, as he puts it, “executive stress,” made worse when everyone’s favorite deejay, Wild Willie, announces a contest for the best Independence Day celebration. At last Wheel does dream up his greatest scheme ever – an amazing carnival. But then a new kid arrives in town – a hot shot, unicycle-riding rich kid named Topper, who wants not only to join Wheel’s gang, but to take it over. And the war begins.
(Holt, 1993)
Silly dog poems. True doggerel.
Illustrated by Clement Oubrerie.
(Disney-Hyperion, 1992)
When fourteen-year-old, would-be witch Rosie Rivera tried to concoct a love potion, she accidentally let a nasty, not-so-little imp out of a bottle instead. The creature stows away to California in a Christmas gift opened by Danny Pauling and his sister Laura. The kids think they’ve hit the jackpot and acquired a genie, who calls himself Mr. Ed, to grant them endless wishes. But Mr. Ed’s outlandish tricks soon wreak havoc all over L.A., landing Danny, Laura, and their mother in danger. It’s up to Rosie and her mother Lydia, a retired witch, to save the day.
(Holt, 1992)
When Chester’s family moves from the country to the city, the poor border collie is out-of-work. Desperately missing his sheep, he tries to herd everything in sight, with disastrous consequences, until he finally gets a new and most satisfying job.
Illustrated by Cat Bowman Smith.
(Macmillan, 1992)
Episodic poems depicting one family’s camping trip as seen through the eyes of a young girl.
Illustrated by Emily Arnold McCully.
(Morrow, 1991)
To help him choose the next master of the forge, a blacksmith sends his three sons on a quest to bring him back something of value. Kindly Half, the youngest, stops in a magical wood to free an imprisoned raven, who tells him the secret of the most precious object in the world: the Golden Heart of Winter, a glowing heart that beats beneath the ground so that spring will follow winter forever and Life will rule equally with Death. When his two greedy brothers dig up the Heart, it is up to Half to rescue it and save his land from ruin.
Illustrated by Robert Rayevsky.
