Books with author Betty Smith

17-year-old Dylan Geringer isn’t a superhero, but there’s still hope for her anagram-inspired alter ego, DARLING ENERGY. When the all-call system at Dylan’s high school sends out a series of mysterious, automated phone messages in the middle of the night, Dylan and her partner-in-crime, Steven, won’t rest until they find out who’s sending them and why they’ve prompted the town to gather at Valley Forge Park on the Ides of March. Within days of the first message, Dylan and Steven’s investigation yields bigger and more private mysteries among the lives of their classmates and especially about their favorite English teacher, Mr. Drake. The fact that March 15th is both Dylan’s birthday and the ten-year anniversary of the death of Mr. Drake’s son, Benjamin, complicates the countdown. Dylan will need to summon all of her Darling Energy powers to wrangle the town together and keep it from falling apart, and she’ll need Steven’s help to save Mr. Drake from the gathering crowd of marching bands, barbershop quartets, and robed cultists.

“A glad affirmation that love can accomplish the impossible.” — Chicago Tribune "Weeping, laughing, raging, exulting... Intensely emotional... Inspired." — New York Times Joy in the Morning is the magnificent million-copy bestseller of young love and marriage by Betty Smith, beloved author of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Tomorrow Will Be Better, and Maggie-Now. In 1927 Brooklyn, teenagers Carl Brown and Annie McGairy meet and fall in love. Through hardship and poverty, their commitment perseveres, and soon they realize that their greatest sources of strength, loyalty, and love will help them make it through, together. Joy in the Morning is, in the words of Best Sellers, “a human-hearted song of joy” from the immortal Betty Smith.