Susan Shreve Books In Order

The Flunking of Joshua T. Bates

In this Knopf Paperback reissue, Joshua is devastated to learn that he must repeat third grade. But he manages to survive the taunts of former classmates, learn something important about himself, and make it through the year with the help of a sympathetic teacher in this ‘funny, touching, and realistic story.’ School Library Journal

Joshua T. Bates Takes Charge

Tommy Wilhelm and his gang of bullies have never let fifth grader Joshuaforget that he was held back in the third grade. Now Tommy has started pickingon a dorky new kid and Joshua must choose between sticking up for the nerd andsaving his own neck. ‘With a well drawn school backdrop and a believable maincharacter, this is a perceptive story that makes it plain what it’s like to bean outcast and also what it takes to be a hero. Welcome back,Joshua.’ Booklist

Goodbye, Amanda the Good

Amanda Bates, older sister of Joshua T. Bates, has always been a ‘good girl,’ gotten good grades, and played by the rules. But now that she’s in junior high, Amanda is discovering that those rules have changed. Her friends have all gone to other schools, her body’s changing, her moods are up and down…
she doesn’t even recognize herself! Amanda decides that her only chance to fit in is to join ‘the Club,’ so she dyes her hair purple, changes her name to Cheetah, cuts school, and starts dating an older boy with a shady past. It’s as if she’s two different people: the one doing all these things she knows are wrong and the one watching them happen and before long, she’s going to have to choose between them.

Lucy Forever, Miss Rosetree, and the Stolen Baby

Lucy Childs and Rosie Treeman, two sixth graders who love to invent psychiatric case histories, suddenly find themselves over their heads in a dangerous case involving an abandoned baby.

Loveletters

Headstrong Kate finds her experience in a home for unwed mothers a stifling one. When she returns home she must face the undesired attentions of a former playmate, now a mentally ill young man.

The Gift of the Girl Who Couldn’t Hear

‘The frenzied anticipation and anxiety of a junior high audition for Annie provide the background for this lively and intelligent story. Eliza, a talented singer, is terrified to sign up for auditions although she has dreamed about starring in the musical since the third grade. But she’s been friends with Lucy who has been deaf since birth even longer, and is amazed when her friend decides to try out. Eliza swallows her fear, however, and promises to attend the audition…
. The girls’ characters are skillfully contrasted, and their tale is chronicled with a fresh, exuberant and up beat style that moves the book along to its gratifying conclusion.’ Publishers Weekly. ‘A rare book.’ Booklist.

Wait for Me

Molly is the youngest of four children, and she likes being the family baby. She’s always been in the same class as her two best friends. Then she enters fifth grade and things change. Her siblings and parents are too busy for her, and she’s not in the same class as her friends. Suddenly, Molly is on her own. She’s got to figure out how to blossom as an individual.

Ghost Cats

The break out novel from the perennially popular author of the Joshua T. Bates books, and Jonah, the Whale. When Peter’s family moved around because of his father’s job one year in Japan, one year in Switzerland he and his siblings were a tight knit group. But suddenly, when the family settles permanently in Boston, the closely woven ties begin to unravel. And Peter is left on his own to cope with a radically reorganized world. He begins to see the ghosts of the family’s departed cats. Are they real? Another strange twist of fate that Boston seems ready to deliver? Or the first signs of healing for a boy who discovers that finding new things to love doesn’t mean he has to let go of the past.

Jonah, the Whale

Jonah is lonely, overweight, and the new boy in school. To escape the taunts of his classmates, he reinvents himself as a talk show host and turns his fantasy into reality by getting real celebrities to talk to him.

Blister

An ALA Notable Book and PW Best Children’s Book of 2001 winner with a resilient 10 year old hero*ine whom readers will love…
now in an After Words edition!Alyssa Reed’s life is a mess. Her parents can’t stop fighting. Her mother won’t stop crying. Alyssa’s father has decided to move the family to a new town, and to move himself to a separate apartment. Nobody gave Alyssa a choice. So Alyssa decides to take control. She renames herself Blister and starts fighting back in her own way. Blister will take on her new school with a new identity, a new wardrobe stolen from her father’s girlfriend, and a raw, new attitude that nobody can ignore. Not even the cheerleaders. Look out world here comes Blister!

Trout and Me

When a new troublemaker, Trout, arrives at school, Ben is soon diagnosed with ADD-just like Trout.

Ever since first grade, Ben’s been in trouble, even though he’s really not a bad kid. He just can’t seem to stop doing things that get him sent to the principal’s office. His parents and wise older sister, Meg, swear he’ll be fine in his own time, but when a new kid shows up in Ben’s fifth-grade class, he’s not so sure. Trout sticks to him like glue, and it’s clear from the start that Trout is a much bigger troublemaker than Ben ever was. So when Ben gets diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder ADD, just like Trout, and then has to take Ritalin, just like Trout, he’s not sure what to make of his friendship-especially when he starts to get a bad reputation. Is Trout’s badness rubbing off on him? Can Ben make people understand it’s the ADD, not Trout, causing the problems before it’s too late?

From the Hardcover edition.

Under the Watsons’ Porch

Twelve year old Ellie Tremont is b o r e d, bored, and she wishes something, anything, would happen. So when 14 year old Tommy Bowers moves in next door, with his lanky swagger and his troubled past, Ellie knows her summer is about to get interesting. When Tommy suggests they start a camp for the kids on their street under their elderly neighbors the Watsons porch, Ellie quickly agrees to that, and everything else Tommy suggests. And when Tommy gives her a diamond necklace that he says he bought, she’s suspicious, though smitten. But by the time her parents forbid her from seeing him, she s given him her heart. Soon, though, Tommy goes too far and even Ellie isn t sure what to make of him.

Kiss Me Tomorrow

Blister is Susan Shreve’s most popular character, and she’s back to find out what happens when Cupid comes calling…
. Blister was there for Jonah when he was the new student everyone loved to hate. Blister was there for Jonah when he lied and said he was a big TV personality. And Blister was right alongside Jonah when he turned his lie into a real job at a television station, complete with his very own show. But now everything has changed. Because Jonah is in trouble once again, and he’s looking to Blister to be more than just a friend…
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The Lovely Shoes

Can the right pair of shoes make anyone feel beautiful?Franny is constantly embarrassed by two things in her life. One is her right foot, which curls in from a birth defect, so she has to wear ugly, heavy orthopedic shoes. And the other is her mother Margaret: beautiful, extravagant, flamboyant mortifying , in their small Ohio town. Franny’s first school dance is a disaster, so Margaret announces her latest crazy plan: They will travel to Italy to meet Salvatore Ferragamo, who will sculpt a pair of slippers especially for Franny. The idea is outrageous. The trip is expensive. And the experience changes Franny’s life forever.

Tripping Over the Lunch Lady

School is great lots of friends, fun sports, and interesting clas*ses. But then there are the days that are horrible: arguing with your best friend, being laughed at in front of your class, meeting up with the school bully, failing a test you really studied for. We ve all been there, including these authors. In this hilarious and diverse collection of short stories, ten well known writers, including Avi, Angela Johnson, David Lubar, James Proimos, and Susan Shreve, tell of those funny and memorable middle school moments. And after reading these comical tales, kids will soon see that they re not alone.

Tales Out of School

Sherman Alexie, David Sedaris, and fifteen other writers on their recent experiences in American classroomsTales Out of School is a luminous collection of diverse and passionate life stories on the ground testimonies of sitting in an American classroom today. Sherman Alexie writes of the ‘sweet, almost innocent choices that Indian boys are forced to make’ in school. Stuart Dybek tells his own story of highly instructive Catholic grade school field trips to the county jail and the stockyards, and David Sedaris narrates a horribly funny account of life underground as a gay eighth grader. These and other writers contribute original essays that tease out the powerful, flawed, wildly diverse experience of school in America. A book for teachers wanting to understand, parents needing to make decisions, and anyone who’s sat in a classroom and can’t ever forget it. ‘Give this book an A…
. Unlike many books about American education, Tales Out of School avoids the temptation to pigeonhole our system. There are no rights or wrongs here. Only truths.’ Vineyard Gazette