Leroy Is Missing
(Harper & Row, 1984)
Sam and Dave are hired by Rita O’Toole, their sidekick-to-be, to find her missing brother, Leroy. In the process, they stumble upon a bookmaking operation.
Illustrations by Judy Glasser.
Bibliography
The Course of True Love Never Did Run Smooth
(Harper & Row, 1983)
Becky and Nemi, fast friends, find their relationship problematic when they both become involved in their high school production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Their love lives, and those of their friends, parallel those of the play.
The Fido Frame-Up
(Warne, 1983)
Sam tracks down the Black Feather Gang, jewel thieves.
Illustrations by Andrew Glass.
Tarantulas on the Brain
(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.
The First Few Friends
(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.
Will You Take Me to Town on Strawberry Day?
(Harper & Row, 1981)
A visit to a British country fair, in verse, with music.
Illustrated by Trinka Hakes Noble.
Chester, The Out of Work Dog
(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.
In My Tent
(Macmillan, 1992)
Episodic poems depicting one family’s camping trip as seen through the eyes of a young girl.
Illustrated by Emily Arnold McCully.
The Golden Heart of Winter
(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.
Nine O’Clock Lullaby
(HarperCollins, 1991)
A lyrical trip through the world’s time zones, starting and ending in Brooklyn, NY.
Illustrated by Frane Lessac.
Exotic Birds
(Doubleday, 1991)
Exotic birds, including eighteen diverse environments and their avian inhabitants.
Illustrated by James Needham.
Twenty Ways to Lose Your Best Friend
(Harper & Row, 1990)
Emma has been taught to “do the right thing.” So she votes for a better actor rather than her best friend to play the lead in the fourth grade class play. When her friend, Sandy, finds out, Emma’s in trouble. A Junior Library Guild selection. A Trumpet Book Club selection (paperback), 1992. Illustrations by Jeffrey Lindberg.
