Colby Rodowsky Books In Order

Sydney, Herself

As she writes in her self awareness journal assigned in English class, fifteen year old Sydney tries to discover her true identity and comes to terms with her obsession about her absent father.

The Gathering Room

After Aunt Ernestus comes to visit, a family living in seclusion as caretakers for a cemetery find the time has come to rejoin the mainstream of society.

Lucy Peale

When her father, a strict fundamentalist preacher, refuses to believe that Lucy is pregnant because she had been raped, Lucy runs away to a nearby resort town, where she encounters Jake, who teaches her to trust and be self reliant.

Hannah in Between

The growing suspicion that her mother might be an alcoholic, despite her family’s denials, threatens twelve year old Hannah’s safe and predictable world when she decides to face the truth about her mother’s condition.

Remembering Mog

Just two years ago, Annie’s sister Mog was happily looking forward to graduation day, the excitement of college, and planning for the future. But all Mog’s dreams ended on the eve of her graduation. She was murdered. Now Annie is about to finish high school. But how can she just go on, right at the point where her sister’s life ended? Annie’s not alone in her grief, but she finds little help from those who share her loss. Her mother, unable to accept the tragedy, never speaks of what happened. Mog’s boyfriend Bobby has become a good friend to Annie, yet her attraction to him leaves her feeling guilty and confused. Can Annie ever begin to let go of the hurt, yet hold on to her happy memories of her sister?

The Turnabout Shop

After her free spirited mother dies, Livvy is uprooted from her New York home and sent to Baltimore to live with her mother’s old college friend, a woman Livvy has never heard of. Jessie is nothing like Livvy’s mother: She’s sensible, likes to weave, and doesn’t even have pierced ears. What she does have is The Turnabout Shop, where she and her mother sell antiques, and a family larger than any Livvy has ever known. She also has a bunch of warm, quirky neighbors, including a girl Livvy’s age. Set down to live among strangers, Livvy begins again from scratch, discovering that even without her mother, she can still learn and laugh and love, and take root in a whole different world.

00 01 Charlie May Simon Book Award Reading List

Not My Dog

Ellie Martin fiercely resists her new dog’s charmsIt isn’t Ellie’s fault, really. She’s always wanted a puppy, and now that she’s almost nine, finally old enough to get one, Preston is foisted on her. What’s more, her parents say that this fully grown mutt that Great aunt Margaret can no longer keep will have to do. They can’t very well have a dog and a puppy. Although heartbroken and resentful, Ellie does see Preston’s virtues. Still, she refuses to accept him as her dog. Then Ellie’s resistance almost costs her Preston, and at last she embraces him. Colby Rodowsky’s story about a child’s change of heart has just enough tenderness and just enough bite to satisfy young dog lovers. Captivating drawings by Thomas F. Yezerski highlight the experience.

Spindrift

At the beginning of summer, thirteen year old Cassie is witness to a disturbing sight. At a party she spots her sister’s husband, Mickey, in the arms of another woman. Could it really be him? And with her sister about to give birth to their first child? When Cassie confronts Mickey, he claims it must have been his double. Though it’s hard to believe him, Cassie struggles to do so with all her might she has always adored Mickey and doesn’t want to think he could do anything wrong. For distraction Cassie has the company of her good friends Megan and Tommy, along with the refuge of the Spindrift, the beautiful old seaside house where she lives with her mother and grandmother Emma. But even the security of home is threatened when Emma, who runs a bed and breakfast out of the Spindrift, decides she’d like to sell the house. Cassie will learn this summer that she can no longer cling to childhood to escape from the unpleasant things that sometimes happen in families.

Jason Rat-a-tat

A book for young readers about realizing one’s passionJason Miller s family is always on the go, and always for the same reason: ball games. Jason spends a lot of time on the sidelines, because he s not much for playing sports. He sometimes watches the games, and sometimes stretches out on the bleachers to watch the clouds roll by. But whatever he does, Jason is always happiest when he accompanies it with the tap tap tap of a stick on a trash can, or the shake shake shake of a can of bottle caps. It s Jason s granddad who, during a weeklong visit, first notices Jason s bent for all things rat a tat. One day Granddad comes home with a large package that s the perfect thing for a boy who may be no ballplayer but is, instead, a talented musician in the making. Colby Rodowsky has created a winning character in Jason, and Beth Peck s pictures are a gentle accompaniment.

Not Quite a Stranger

A girl discovers she has a half brotherCharlotte Flannigan Tottie, for short leads a conventional life in a conventional family. Her father is a well respected pediatrician, her mother a popular newspaper columnist, and her younger brother a talkative but otherwise okay kid. But on an ordinary Saturday afternoon, Tottie’s comfortable life is threatened when the doorbell rings. She answers it to find a teenage boy, who looks eerily like her father, standing there. A stranger, but Not Quite a Stranger. His name is Zachary Pearce, and he is her father’s and not her mother’s son. Told through the alternating perspectives of Tottie and Zach, Colby Rodowsky’s novel explores the ramifications of a sudden change in the makeup of a family. Fear, resentment, desperation, and potential for love all surface in this honest and heartfelt story.

The Next-door Dogs

Putting a fear to restSara Barker is afraid of dogs. Whenever she sees even a picture of one, she feels clammy and cold all over. So what’s Sara to do when she learns that her new next door neighbor owns two of them? Two young and big dogs, to be specific. Her neighbor turns out to be an ebullient older woman who befriends Sara and promises her dogs will keep their distance. But one day a situation arises in which Sara is forced to venture into the yard next door, even as the dogs there are desperately barking. Kids will relate to Sara, and dog lovers will enjoy seeing her overcome her fears in this easy to read chapter book, with numerous cheerful pictures. The Next Door Dogs is a 2006 Bank Street Best Children’s Book of the Year.

Ben and the Sudden Too-Big Family

Ben’s philosophy of life is that there are two categories of things that happen, the all right stuff and the not all right stuff. Ben has always lived with just his dad, Mitch, which definitely falls into the all right category. When Mitch meets Casey and they decide to get married, that turns out to be all right, too. Then Mitch and Casey decide to adopt a baby from China, and Ben isn t sure which category the whole baby thing is going to fit into. After the baby comes home it s all right, Casey and Mitch announce that the four of them as a family are going on vacation with Casey s family. All twenty three of them! Ben is sure this will not be all right!

How eleven year old Ben finds his place in a crazy big family makes this a funny novel about family and what it means to be a part of one.