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.
Several Kinds of Silence
(Harper & Row, 1988)
Sixteen-year-old Franny Yeager, the “good girl” of the family, tries to hide her burgeoning love for a Japanese-American boy since her father is rabidly anti-Japanese. Complicating matters is the illness of her beloved grandmother with whom she shares a room. Published in Great Britain by Pan Macmillan.
The Lightey Club
(Four Winds Press, 1987)
Three sisters, forced to spend the summer with their grandparents whom they don’t like, decide to form the Lightey Club. At each meeting, Henny, the oldest sister, recounts a new tale about Lightey the Lightning Bug and his insect pals. Henny’s stories help change a bad vacation into a magical one.
Illustrations by Kathryn Brown.
Ghost Host
(Harper & Row, 1987)
Sixteen-year-old Bart Hawkins, star quarterback, learns that his house is haunted when Millicent, a sixteen-year-old “spokespook” for nine other ghosts, asks his help in ridding the place of a new and obnoxious poltergeist. With her help, Bart, who has been hiding his brains and love of reading, learns to be truthful about himself to his friends and his girlfriend.
Mitzi Meyer, Fearless Warrior Queen
(Scholastic, 1987)
Mitzi is afraid of everything until a “psychic” named Madame Blini tells her that she was Queen Boadicea in a past life.
Lizzie Silver Of Sherwood Forest
(Harper & Row, 1986)
Lizzie’s latest obsession, in this sequel to Tarantulas on the Brain, is Robin Hood, leading to some misadventures at a Medieval Faire. In addition, to keep her best friend Tessa from going off to music school without her, Lizzie tries to learn the harp, with less than satisfactory results.
Illustrations by Miriam Nerlove.
Where There’s a Will, There’s a Wag
(Holt, 1986)
Did the wealthy Carlotta Bucks really leave all her money to a cat? Sam will find out.
Illustrations by Andrew Glass.
