M E Kerr Books In Order

Spring Fire

Spring Fire was the first lesbian pulp novel ever published. The original 1950s cover blared: ‘A story once told in whispers now frankly, honestly written.’ Shameless and seductive in an era when lesbian lives were hidden from view, Spring Fire chronicles the story of Leda and Mitch, two sorority sisters at a Midwestern university who stumble into a forbidden love affair. While their romance ends unhappily in order to satisfy U.S. postal inspectors who would have seized shipments of a novel that affirmed lesbian love Spring Fire touched the lives of countless lesbian and gay readers and cleared the way for the hundreds of lesbian pulps that were to come. This edition includes a new introduction by the author describing the story behind the novel’s initial publication.

We Walk Alone

In 1955, this groundbreaking pulp revealed underground lesbian life in Greenwich Village. Part Kinsey esque portraits of real people, part you are there reports on the scene in bars and offices and at clubs and house parties, this is an authentic cultural artifact of a resilient community on the cusp of change.

We Too, Must Love

Three years after We Walk Alone, Ann Aldrich expands on her journalistic portraits of lesbian subcultures in and around New York to include: class questions; the diverse jobs lesbians held; social cliques; differences among the Village, Uptown, and Brooklyn communities; and hints at the growing consciousness that would fuel later lesbian and gay rights movements. The sequel closes with sample letters from the six hundred written to Aldrich after We Walk Alone was published.

Dinky Hocker Shoots Smack!

When Tucker Woolf needs to find a new home for his cat he only gets one call. It’s from Dinky Hacker, the strongest girl he has ever met. She doesn’t shoot smack, but she sure could tell you a lot about kids who do. And once the cat moves in with Dinky, visiting it means visiting the Hocker home, which turns out to be more than Tucker ever bargained for…
Best of the Best Books YA 1970 1983 ALANotable Children’s Books of 1972 ALABest Books of 1972 SLJChildren’s Books of 1972 Library of Congress

If I Love You, Am I Trapped Forever?

Alan Bennett is all set for his senior year to be the best year ever. He’s the school s star jock, star writer, star everything . But that s before Duncan Stein enters the scene. Stein, the new boy at Cayuta High, is nicknamed ‘Doomed’ by his classmates, and Alan thinks he s a total joke. Then Stein invents a newspaper called REMOTE , with personal ads everyone wants to imitate. Suddenly, Stein is most WANTED himself, even by Alan s own girlfriend! Could Alan possibly lose his girl to such a freak?

Gentlehands

Buddy Boyle lives year round with his family in unfashionable Seaville, New York, in a cramped little house on the bay. Skye Pennington spends the summers nearby on lavish estate complete with ocean view and a butler named Peacock.

But Skye and Buddy fall in love anyway. And every once in a while they visit Buddy’s estranged grandfather, who makes them forget they’re from opposite sides of town. Then a reporter appears, searching for a man known as Gentlehands, a man with a horrifying past. Who is Gentlehands? And what is his connection to Buddy’s handsome, aristocratic grandfather? The mystery threatens to shatter Buddy and Skye’s relationship, and change their lives forever.

Little Little

Finding the right mate is no small matter…
Little Little La Belle is the daughter of the wealthiest businessman in town. She is everything an heiress should be beautiful, independent, and perfect in every way. Except for one thing: she is only three feet, three inches tall. And now that she is about to turn eighteen, her parents are conspiring to get her married to the perfect young man. But Little Little has plans of her own. With characters who play their cards close to the vest and closer to the ground, Little Little is a love story unlike any other.

I Stay Near You

An ill fated romance between a girl from the wrong side of the tracks and a boy from the richest family in a small upstate New York town has dire consequences for three generations. A gold ring, inscribed with I Stay Near You, triggers a complex chain of events as it’s passed down from one generation to the next.

Night Kites

What do you do when your best friend’s girlfriend makes a pass at you? Erick Rudd isn’t sure how it happened he did nothing but look. It was Nicki who made the first move. And if that doesn’t complicate things enough, Erick is about to get some news that will blow his safe world apart: Pete, his older brother and idol, has fullblown AIDS. I’m a night kite, Pete once told Erick. I go up in the dark, alone, on my own, and I’m not afraid to be different. Nicki is a night kite, too. Together, she and Pete will teach Erick that sometimes it’s best to keep your feet on the ground.

Shoebag

A talented, well known author, writing under a pseudonym, tells the story of a happy young cockroach named Shoebag, who awakens one morning to find that he has been transformed into a little boy. Adopted by the Biddle family, Shoebag changes the lives of all he meets.

Deliver Us from Evie

Told by her brother Parr, this is the story of 18 year old Evie, her Missouri farm family, and the turmoil created by Evie’s love for the local banker’s daughter. ‘Teens will be swept up in the emotion and immediacy of Parr’s fast paced narrative, his voice perfectly pitched between wit and melancholy. It’s a story that challenges stereotypes, not only about love, but also about farmers and families and religion and responsibility about all our definitions of ‘normal.” BL. ‘Unquestionably, this is the best Kerr in years, if not ever.’ V. 1995 Best Books for Young Adults ALA1995 Recommended Books for Reluctant Young Adult Readers ALA1995 Fanfare Honor List The Horn Book1995 Books for the Teen Age NY Public Library1994 Best Book Honor Award Michigan Library Association

Shoebag Returns

Shoebag, a cockroach who has the ability to become human, concocts a hilarious prank to help the only boy in an all girls’ school wreak revenge on The Betters, a club for snobs.

What Became of Her

Peligro, the sign said. Danger because the road that led up to the house twisted sharply around the hill. One of the Hispanic workers had made the sign as the house was being prepared for its new owner. When Rosalind Slymaster was finally ready to live there, everyone in the small Pennsylvanis town had come to call the place Peligro. It was like Mrs. Slaymastr to leave it that way. She was said to be the richest woman in Bucks County. When Edgar Tobbit first met her, he thought she didn’t look rich, but it didn’t take him very long to realize she wasn’t like anyone else, either. Neither was her teenage niece, Julie, who arrived at school every day in a white Hummer. And neither was Peale, the two foot leather mannequin who had his own wardrobe of tailor made suits; his own passport, bedroom, and television. Peale was said to grant wishes and make dreams come true.’What’s Peligro like?’ Edgar’s friend asks him. And Edgar invites him to a party there on Christmas Eve. That is how Neal Kraft and Julie first meet. The threesome quickly become fast friends and, in a short while, change one another’s lives, barely aware of the old secrets that inspire Mrs. Slaymaster’s revenge on the town. Through it all Peale sits among them with his green glass eyes bright and watchful, as though he knows what’s coming. What Became of Her is partly based on some real life characters the author has never been able to forget. Books for the Teen Age 2001 NYPL

Slap Your Sides

Friends, I have to speak up and oppose this praise for a conchie, even though he is my own blood. I may love Bud Shoemaker, but I don’t admire him any longer. How can I if he won’t pull his weight in this war? How can you be pacifists with a madman like Hitler ready to rule the world? I want to say to you all, Wake up!

Everyone in Sweet Creek knows about Bud Shoemaker. Nothing is secret for long in that small Pennsylvania town. Bud has been asked not to lead his Boy Scout troop anymore. When he drives up at the Texaco station in his old Ford, the help take their time coming out to pump gas.

A lot of regular customers aren’t buying at his family’s department store, either. And a lot of the Shoemakers’ friends are no longer that friendly.

Jubal Shoemaker, fourteen, finds himself being treated differently too.

One day the girl of his dreams, Daria Daniel, tells him that her father ‘doesn’t think it’s good for me to be around you people too much.’

‘You mean the Shoemakers? Is that what you mean?’

Bud has changed things, Jubal. A lot of people don’t like what he’s done. It’s not just us!’

Instead of joining the armed forces with all the other young men in town, Bud Shoemaker chose to be a conscientious objector, abiding by his family’s Quaker beliefs. Now Jubal, who has always idolized his brother and wanted to be like him, suddenly wonders if he can be if he even wants to be like him when Bud’s decision seems to be tearing their family apart.

Snakes Don’t Miss Their Mothers

Christmas is coming, and Marshall, a black and yellow king snake who likes big words and live rats, and Irving, a twelve year old part German shorthaired pointer, are still accidental residents at Critters, an animal shelter in the Hamptons. Even word of Placido’s umpteenth adoption doesn’t cheer them up. The large, one eyed Siamese usually ‘goes out’ for only twenty four hours before his new owners decide he should ‘come back.’ Still, this time might be different. Sam Twilight and his daughter, Jimmie, are former circus performers and just might be clever enough to deal with a cat who has very bad habits. As the holidays arrive, all sorts of surprises are in store for the creatures at Critters. Catherine, an aging greyhound rescued from the racetrack, is invited to Ginny Tintree’s home for Christmas weekend. Goldie, a.k.a. Rex, a recently arrived yellow Lab sought by the evil dogcatcher with red gloves, escapes and is on the run again. And a heartsick Maine coon cat named Rags Randall is compelled to compose his first poem about a dog: ‘Rex, this is Rags, can you hear me? / I miss not having you near me. / Run fast, Rex, run hard. / Till you come to our yard! / Rex, this is Rags, can you hear me?’ With her own special brand of humor and compassion, the inimitable M. E. Kerr ex plores a small corner of the world where the lives of humans and animals intertwine daily, often bringing new hope to all.

Your Eyes in Stars

Annabel first sees him playing soccer near her house. His name is Esteban she sees it on the back of his team shirt. He notices her, smiles, then looks back over his shoulder at her again.

It is the beginning of summer in the resort town of Seaview. It is also the start of a romance between a young Colombian who came to town to work and the daughter of a local contractor whose crews are entirely Latino new immigrants who are changing the face of Seaview.

This is the summer of war in Iraq, and of Hurricane Katrina. But in Seaview there are other concerns. In Annabel’s house her new boyfriend is at the top of the list. And Esteban’s sister has harsh words for his choice of a girlfriend.

M. E. Kerr weaves a compelling story of star crossed love and a small town problem of nationwide significance.

Something in the Shadows / Intimate Victims

Two novels of sophisticated suspense from the early 1960’s. SOMETHING IN THE SHADOWS It begins on an upstate country road. Joseph Meaker is following a Mercedes Benz on his way home when the driver ahead of him swerves suddenly and runs over something in the road. Curious, Joseph stops and finds his treasured cat, Ishmael, dying in the road. Grief stricken, all he can ask himself is what kind of person would drive over an animal like this. He tracks the Mercedes to his neighbors, Dr. Louis Hart and his wife Janice. Joseph’s wife, Maggie, thinks he should confront the doctor and be done with it. But that isn’t Joseph’s way. Joseph doesn’t intend to get over it he intends to get even. INTIMATE VICTIMS Robert Bowser had embezzled exactly $100,043. 77. He had written the farewell note to his wife and was ready to escape down to Brazil. Unfortunately, young social wannabe Harvey Plangman finds the note. Plangman had always wanted to be rich, to be accepted into the moneyed world. He saw his chance, and blackmailed Bowser into trading places with him. Bowser moves into Plangman’s small campus rooming house, while Plangman settles into an upscale New York apartment. It was the perfect switch Bowser found himself enjoying the freedom of his new surroundings, and Plangman worked hard at ingratiating himself into his new world. It almost worked.

Damnation of Adam Blessing / Alone at Night

Suspense Classics. DAMNATION: All Adam wants is to be respected–whatever it takes. ALONE: Slater Burr has gotten away with murder–or has he?

Whisper His Sin / Evil Friendship

WHISPER HIS SIN When Ferris Sullivan first meets Paul Lasher at Jackson University, he hates him. A loner, on the odd side, Sullivan needs his privacy. But Lasher, the senior in charge of the dorm, assigns him a room with roommates, and keeps the private room for himself. Still, Lasher takes a liking to Sullivan, and a gradual if begrudging friendship develops. During a break, they go to New York together, where Lasher introduces Sullivan to a few of his flamboyant friends. Lasher has never considered himself gay after all, he has a girlfriend, doesn’t he? But that weekend he falls in love with young Sullivan. They begin to make plans together. If only Sullivan’s mother hadn’t found out. Horrified, she threatens to expose them. What they need is an escape plan. Leave it to Lasher to come up with the perfect solution. Whisper His Sin is a fictionalized version of a real early 50’s New York crime, the Fredan Wepman Champagne Murders. THE EVIL FRIENDSHIP Mary Drew Edlin never had any friends until her family moves to Weerdale and enrolls her in an expensive boarding school, Chillam. There she meets the beautiful and mysterious dark haired Martha Kent. Together they create an eccentric and erotic fantasy life, stealing into the forbidden forest and creating solemn ceremonies, writing stories together, and becoming lovers in various disguises. Although Rush, one of Chillam’s star boarders, wants Martha for her own special friend, no one can break the pair up. What these two devoted girls do not count on is Mrs. Edlin, the fretful mother of Mary Drew. Based on the Parker Hulme case in New Zealand, The Evil Friendship describes what drastic step the girls take to keep from being separated. Peter Jackson filmed this story in 1994 as Heavenly Creatures.

Me Me Me Me Me

The author recounts escapades from her own teenage years and reveals how many of those real life people and events served as springboards for the fictional characters and plots in her nine young adult novels.

Blood On the Forehead

Award winning novelist M. E. Kerr shares for the first time the stories behind and excerpt from five of her novels and five short stories and offers young people dozens of sensible writing tips that can be used immediately by any aspiring writer of fiction. A professional writer who has earned her living solely as an author from the year after she graduated college to the present, Ms. Kerr with her usual mix of sparkling with and common sense talks about how she gets her ideas and, more important, how she uses them to create her stories. Whether you are writing your next school assignment or thinking about writing as career, Blood On the Forehead gives you a fascinatinginsight into the way one highly successful author approaches her own work. For decades, Marijane Meaker has delighted readers of all ages. Shes written under the names Vin Packer, M. J. Meaker, and Mary James. But as M. E. Kerr, writer of books for young adults, she has won perhaps her greatest audience. In Blood On the Forehead M. E. Kerr shares both the stories behind and excerpts from five of her novels and five short stories for young adults, as well as tips about what writers need to remember in order to write fiction successfully e.g., Courtesy 10 to extend to your reader: Cut! Cut! Cut! Your reader has a life.. With her usual mix of sparkling wit and common sense, Kerrs personal journey through the writing process is sure to buoy the spirits of any reader faced with the next writing assignment.