Books with author Amy Bates

Lorrie is coming off a bad case of mono. She spent weeks at her parents’ house getting over it and is back at her beloved cottage now, being responsible and independent, finishing her senior year of high school. But she has so much work to make up and very little time to do it in. The counselor is definitely not on her side. To make things worse, her sister Melissa is coming to spend her spring break with Lorrie. Melissa is a one-woman train wreck. The pressure is on and Lorrie succumbs to temptation. Not only does she get involved with a dangerous guy, she lets him talk her into taking something to help her stay awake so she can get her schoolwork done. Pretty soon she’s in the middle of a very bad situation, one that threatens the lives of a lot of people. There doesn’t seem to be any way out, but Lorrie is trying her best to find one, and still graduate…if she’s alive.

Uncle Joe is good at losing himself but when he does it just before the social worker is due, Jessie has to take over, making it look like the four Stewart children have adequate food, clean clothes, and proper care. None of that is true, but Jessie is good at bluffing social workers. This time will be different, though. There’s a new social worker and he doesn’t bluff. This time things are worse than ever and if Jessie wants to keep the four of them together she’s going to have to learn a few new tricks—fast. Faster than Ruthie can get dirty, faster than Petey can get into trouble. Even with BoJoe’s help, things don’t look good. The kids have a few tricks left to try, though the social worker isn’t going to like them. But without Uncle Joe, they’re running out of options.

The easiest way for Mac to visit his mom in the cemetery is to trespass over the tiniest bit of Mr. Jones’s property. It leads him right to her grave. But Mr. Jones is a cranky man and this trespassing makes him even crankier! When Mac gets the brilliant idea to build a radio so he can talk to his mom in heaven, he knows exactly where he wants to put the antenna. In the tallest tree, of course. And Mr. Jones’s trees are the tallest ones in town. While Mac works on his radio, his friend JoJo is having a few issues with some bones (JoJo has a few issues anyway!) and his other friend, Cheemee, has plans Mr. Jones might not like, too. The boys are just trying to enjoy their summer, but they’re going to be in big trouble with Mr. Jones before their adventures are over!

Kerry is good at running, both long distance and away from her problems. With divorced parents, life is easier that way. If you just leave, the problem is solved. Or at least she doesn’t have to deal with it anymore. But Kerry has a chance for a track scholarship to college if she sticks around. Sticking around means becoming a part of things, getting involved, caring, and that’s when things start getting strange. A little boy has disappeared, and someone is leaving Kerry disgusting gifts. Instead of helping, the cop on the case asks her out. Kerry would just leave but she’s tired of running away and this time, she does get involved—a decision that may cost her more than she’s willing to pay. Because she has become the next target.

Caleb and his five-year-old sister Cailey are enjoying an end-of-summer picnic when things go terribly wrong. Caleb wakes up in a locked room where the door has a spy slit and someone behind it, watching him. Caleb doesn’t know where his sister and his mother are, or even if they’re alive. He doesn’t know where he is, and sometimes he doesn’t know WHO he is, either. The one thing he quickly finds out is that Alphonso wants something from him—his life. Now Caleb has a battle on his hands, but how can he win when he’s locked in a room in the middle of nowhere? He’s going to have to outwit Alphonso, plus his kidnapper and even himself if he wants to go home again.

From the acclaimed author and illustrator of The Big Umbrella comes a delightful celebration of creativity and gumption about a girl and her panda that’s Calvin and Hobbes meets If You Give a Mouse a Cookie!Sometimes when they say to draw a perfect circle, mine turn out a little wonky. I can draw a perfect fluffy cloud, a perfect scoop of ice cream, and a perfect flat tire. So when I draw a panda, I keep drawing more and more not-perfect circles until I see a panda. Then I step back and think, Does it need something else? He probably needs a hat, and then he is my panda. When a girl draws a panda, it comes to life and helps her embrace her own creativity and unique way of seeing the world.

Book Description Publication Date: June 1989 | Series: Point Mark has discovered a way to meet girls--on the teen party line. Unfortunately, he also discovers that some of the new girls he meets on the phone have disappeared. What started as a way to get dates, leads Mark into a frightening mystery--one that becomes dangerous as well!. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Show More Show Less

Elaine sees something amazing in the park when the girl in the wheelchair suddenly awakens and begins moving. But the attendant quickly tranquilizes the girl and whisks her away. What awakened her? Elaine thinks it might be a special patch of dirt. All she wants to do is take it to the mysterious girl, just in case it’s important to her, but bit by bit Elaine gets drawn into planning a rescue. She is aided by creatures she wouldn’t believe in if she didn’t see them for herself, and sometimes it’s hard to believe in them even then. Big Guy and the Blinis are pretty strange! Elaine has no idea she is taking the first step in a battle against a great evil and that she is gathering soldiers for a fight she can’t even imagine. She doesn’t even know the evil exists…but it knows about her.

Noah and his friend Clif are spending a lazy summer watching girls and playing a retro video game from their childhood. Noah’s father, a war vet with post-traumatic stress disorder, lives in a bunker he’s created in the basement. The one thing Noah can count on is his father will tell him to cut his hair. They can’t seem to connect beyond that issue and it doesn’t help that the cops keep stopping Noah when he’s out on his motorcycle. The cops might have a good reason for not liking his father, but it seems unfair that they take it out on Noah. He has a thing for a girl named Jenea, and he also has a feeling something isn’t right at her summer job. He gets the wild idea that she’s been kidnapped, and he can see himself playing the role of hero. But even heroes have fathers and his is going to put a large crimp in Noah’s style.

No one speaks to her, not ever. Not one word. It's like she doesn't even exist. Has she been bad? Is she being punished? Are they shunning her? Is she so good at sneaking around in the shadows that people have forgotten her? The day she begins to wonder is the day her whole world begins to flip upside down and turn inside out. She has nowhere to turn for help except to the very people who have been pretending she doesn't even exist. The truth is impossible and her problems are beyond anyone's ability to believe. Even her own.

Casey begins having strange dreams of a cloudy, foggy room where she meets her future self. The subject they discuss is murder. Their own! If she can believe a dream, it seems neither the current or the future Casey has very long to live. If that weren’t bad enough, on her way to school she encounters an actual spot of dread in the woods that only she can feel. That’s very unpleasant and she has no idea what it means but she's way too busy to think about dread and dying! Dreams aren't real, anyway; or are they? Unfortunately, Casey will have to believe in them if she wants to live long enough to turn in her project and maybe make the newspapers! With the help of her older self, Casey has to figure out how to prevent her own murder, twice.