Excerpt
A note from the authorI started writing books for young readers when I turned sixty (I wrote scripts for television movies for twenty years). I don't know why, except that it occurred to me I could write what I wanted, the way I wanted, for a demanding audience that would accept nothing less than the best work a writer had to offer. When I was a kid, there was the world the way it was and the world the way I wanted it to be. That's how I still see it. My characters are innocents. They are romantics. They are bright and tough and they see a thing through. How else can a kid survive?From Beekman's Big DealBeekman didn't think that an interview with yet another new school qualified as a big day. Especially when the fall term had already started. Four days ago. But he kept this to himself. He'd been to too many schools to make an issue of it."Think big, live big," Leo said."Think small, live small," Beekman said."Now you're talking," Leo said. He started singing "Over the Rainbow."Beekman washed his hair, which was brown and grew in several directions at once and fell forward over his forehead, no matter how much effort he put into training it. He soaped his body. There wasn't an ounce of fat on him. His rib cage looked like a section of bumpy road. He thought that a truly big day would be one in which absolutely nothing happened.