Synopses & Reviews
Sixth-grader Ruby Pepperdine has always been good at figuring things out. Good at figuring out what to say to the school nurse, and how not to get called on in class when she doesnt know the answer. Good at figuring out how not to cause trouble, and how to keep everything just the way its supposed to be. Now Ruby has figured out how to write the winning essay for the Bunning Day Essay Contest, celebrating town founder Captain Bunning, the inventor of the donut hole. Shell read her speech when her whole New Hampshire town comes out for the Bunning Day parade. Yet it hardly seems to matter, because nothing else is the way its supposed to be at all, and Ruby cant figure out how to make it right. Lucy, her best friend, is mad at her. Nero, her new friend, might be mad at her, too. And Gigi, her beloved grandmother, passed away before Ruby figured out what Gigi was trying to tell her. Now Ruby just feels as though shes underwater, unable to find the center of the circle where everything makes sense. Does her birthday wish have something to do with it? Can Ruby Pepperdines wish make things right again?
Review
Another gem from one of my favorite authors! Ruby Pepperdine and her wish will work their way into the center of your heart, where theyll remain (along with a yearning for donuts) long after you close the book. --Ingrid Law, author of Savvy, a Newbery Honor Book Every book by Linda Urban makes me laugh, cry, hope, wonder, and fall in love with her writing. With The Center of Everything, she has done it again! --Barbara OConnor, author of How to Steal a Dog
Review
VOYA Top Shelf for Middle School Readers 2013 list
"The Center of Everything travels a satisfying, circular path that deliberately echoes the shape of a donut. . . . Wishing has a useful place both in childhood and in this novel; but so, too, does reality, especially when rendered with this kind of sensitivity."
—Meg Wolitzer, The New York Times Book Review "Another gem from one of my favorite authors! Ruby Pepperdine and her wish will work their way into the center of your heart, where theyll remain (along with a yearning for donuts) long after you close the book." —Ingrid Law, author of Savvy, a Newbery Honor Book
"A beautiful, sensitive, thoughtful novel that will make you think and smile and think some more, and fall in love with Linda Urban's books."
—Kathryn Erskine, National Book Award-winner "Every book by Linda Urban makes me laugh, cry, hope, wonder, and fall in love with her writing. With The Center of Everything, she has done it again!" —Barbara OConnor, author of How to Steal a Dog * "Throughout this slim, affecting novel, Urban treats Ruby's bewilderment with care, and gracefully reinforces the value of friends, family, and community."
—Booklist, starred review
"Ruby's large imagination and even bigger heart are beautifully evoked as the sixth grader finds a way to keep the memory of her grandmother alive."
—Publishers Weekly
* "A poignant, finely wrought exploration of grief."
—Kirkus, starred review
"By turns thought-provoking, humorous, and poignant, Ruby's story introduces a multi-faceted character well worth meeting."
—Horn Book
"Give this to patient readers who enjoy Polly Horvath's The Vacation (2005) and Everything on a Waffle (2001)."
—School Library Journal
* "[Urban] compactly, gently addresses some common aspects of grief: the isolation, the regrets, the bargaining, and the epistemological questions about meaning. . . . This is a terrific first step up for kids who are just beginning to explore more complicated novels."
—Bulletin, starred review
Review
Praise for
The Question of Miracles: * "…Unfolds with heartbreaking believability."—Publishers Weekly, starred review
* "…Will catch readers, and help pull them toward seeking answers of their own for the story’s very large questions."—Booklist, starred review
Synopsis
From the author of the acclaimed A CROOKED KIND OF PERFECT and HOUND DOG TRUE comes a middle-grade novel about donuts, a birthday wish, and making things right with the ones you love.
Synopsis
Spring 2013 Kids' Indie Next List
For Ruby Pepperdine, the -center of everything- is on the rooftop of Pepperdine Motors in her donut-obsessed town of Bunning, New Hampshire, stargazing from the circle of her grandmother Gigi's hug. That's how everything is supposed to be--until Ruby messes up and things spin out of control. But she has one last hope. It all depends on what happens on Bunning Day, when the entire town will hear Ruby read her winning essay. And it depends on her twelfth birthday wish--unless she messes that up too. Can Ruby's wish set everything straight in her topsy-turvy world?
Synopsis
For Ruby Pepperdine, the “center of everything” is on the rooftop of Pepperdine Motors in her donut-obsessed town of Bunning, New Hampshire, stargazing from the circle of her grandmother Gigis hug. Thats how everything is supposed to be—until Ruby messes up and things spin out of control. But she has one last hope. It all depends on what happens on Bunning Day, when the entire town will hear Ruby read her winning essay. And it depends on her twelfth birthday wish—unless she messes that up too. Can Rubys wish set everything straight in her topsy-turvy world?
Synopsis
A family road trip sets the scene for Elana K. Arnold's middle-grade follow up to The Question of Miracles, which explores what is fair in all the big and little things that make up life.
Synopsis
Odette Zyskowski has a list: Things That Aren’t Fair. At the top of the list is her parents’ decision to take the family on the road in an ugly RV they’ve nicknamed the Coach. There’s nothing fair about leaving California and living in the cramped Coach with her parents and exasperating younger brother, sharing one stupid cell phone among the four of them. And there’s definitely nothing fair about what they find when they reach Grandma Sissy's house, hundreds of miles later. Most days it seems as if everything in Odette’s life is far from fair. Is there a way for her to make things right?
With warmth and sensitivity Elana K. Arnold makes the difficult topics of terminal illness and the right to die accessible to young readers and able to be discussed.
Synopsis
Odette has a list: Things That Aren’t Fair. At the top of the list is her parents’ decision to take the family on the road in an ugly RV they’ve nicknamed the Coach. There’s nothing fair about leaving California and living in the Coach with her parents and exasperating brother. And there’s definitely nothing fair about Grandma Sissy’s failing health, and the painful realities and difficult decisions that come with it. Most days it seems as if everything in Odette’s life is far from fair but does it have to be?
With warmth and sensitivity Elana Arnold makes difficult topics like terminal illness and the right to die accessible to young readers and able to be discussed.
About the Author
Linda Urbans debut novel, A Crooked Kind of Perfect, was selected for many best books lists and was nominated for twenty state awards. Her novel Hound Dog True received four starred reviews and was named a Kirkus Best Book of 2011. A former bookseller, she lives in Montpelier, Vermont, with her family.