Books with author Kathleen Deist

Middle school is going to take some getting used to. The halls are hectic, the unspoken rules are baffling, and the eighth-grade boys are one big gang of bullies. Agnes’s best friend Prejean has jumped in and decided to run for class president, but Agnes would rather try to be invisible. That’ll be especially difficult now that Prejean has asked Agnes to be her campaign manager. And then there’s the problem of Aram, a boy in Agnes’s art class who seems to have a crush on her. He’s smart and funny, and Agnes feels comfortable with him. But is he such an odd duck that she’ll seem odd by association? "O’Dell creates some of the liveliest characters in recent fiction," said VOYA of Agnes Parker . . . Girl in Progress. And here, those characters face the exciting, nerve-racking rite of passage that is seventh grade. It makes for Kathleen O’Dell’s most genuine, endearing book yet. Who better to introduce readers to middle school than the funny, warmhearted Agnes, who can’t be invisible even when she tries.

She's left her good Catholic girl ways behind . . . mostly. It is 1967, the Summer of Love, and Mary Margaret Hallinan has that itchy, squirmy feeling that there must be something more out there for her. Her new best friend, the glamorous Jane, says that boys are the ticket to a spectacular future. Her ex-best friend Elizabeth is sure she's going to hell. "Say yes!" commands Jane, and Mary Margaret has tried to follow her c'mon-it'll-be-fabulous friend into the psychedelic swirl. But can she fit any of her old self to this new life she's trying on?This is it, this is gonna be the summer. Mary Margaret Hallinan, former good Catholic girl, is clutching her ticket.Friendship, faith, family, feminism, and1960s counterculture all contribute to the heartfelt, thoughtful pages of Bad Tickets.From the Hardcover edition.

Eleven-year-old Agnes Parker has always been your everyday girl. But this year, Agnes is determined to become a whole new person. Maybe not a whole new person exactly, but just a better version of the girl she’s always been. Someone who’s not such an easy target for bullygirls like Peggy Neidermeyer. Someone who is as cool and confident as her best friend, Prejean. Will the new Agnes Parker make it through a school year filled with new glasses, broken arms, and a cute new boy in school?