WHEN MOLLY WAS A HARVEY GIRL by Frances Wood Thirteen-year-old Molly's father has recently died, leaving her 19-year-old sister Colleen in charge of keeping a roof over their heads. Unfortunately, there's not much money left and few options for young girls in the late nineteenth century. Colleen dresses Molly in women's clothing—good thing she's tall!—and both apply for positions at the Harvey Eating Houses—famous along the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad. To Molly's dismay, the plan works, and she soon finds herself far away from her friends in the heart of the Wild West working 12-hour shifts. Determined to get back home, Molly concocts a plan to marry off her sister. But will she be able to circumvent the elusive outlaw Genius Jim?
“Wood's prose is dense with the smells and tastes of a heroine's work.” --Publishers Weekly
Kane Miller, September 2010
THE KNEEBONE BOY by Ellen Potter
In the small English town of Little Tunks, everyone loves to gossip about the Hardscrabble family—in between avoiding them like the plague. Mrs. Hardscrabble mysteriously disappeared years ago, which is when 13-year-old Otto Hardscrabble stopped talking. Mr. Hardscrabble is frequently absent.
When their father has to go abroad for a few weeks, he sends the children—Otto, adventure-seeking Lucia, and whip-smart Max—to stay with a relative in London. Plans are bungled and the Hardscrabbles find themselves stranded in the city. Barely escaping the clutches of an angry, tattooed man, they manage to track down their great aunt Haddie Piggit, a young, eccentric American with a penchant for Pixy Stix living in a child-sized castle in Snoring-by-the-Sea. Soon the children discover they may be living next door to the Kneebone Boy, a horribly misshapen child who has figured in local legend for centuries. In trying to help him, they begin to have suspicions about his identity...as well as the identity of their mother.
“Fresh, funny and surprising...Wonderfully odd characters....A quirky charmer.” --Kirkus, starred review
“Often laugh-out-loud funny, this tale quietly solves a deeper mystery: how to heal the hearts of this immensely likable trio.” --Publisher's Weekly
Feiwel & Friends/Macmillan, September 2010
