Books with author Kerry Kay

A funny-serious own-voices story about what happens when you stop trying to be the person other people expect you to be and give yourself a go. Erin is looking forward to Schoolies, at least she thinks she is. But things are not going to plan. Life is getting messy, and for Erin, who is autistic, that’s a big problem. She’s lost her job at Surf Zone after an incident that clearly was not her fault. Her driving test went badly even though she followed the instructions perfectly. Her boyfriend is not turning out to be the romantic type. And she’s missing her brother, Rudy, who left almost a year ago. But now that she’s writing letters to him, some things are beginning to make just a tiny bit of sense. Kay Kerr is a former journalist and community newspaper editor from Brisbane, now living on the Sunshine Coast with her husband and daughter and working as a freelance writer. Kay was writing the first draft of Please Don’t Hug Me, her first book, when she received her own autism-spectrum diagnosis. ‘This book is beautifully intimate, and so authentic. You’re going to love getting to know its central character, Erin. I’m so thrilled this book exists.’ Claire Christian ‘A moving and insightful story about finding your place in the world.’ Nina Kenwood

In this “hauntingly beautiful story about love, family, and relationships,” a mysterious dog helps an elderly man in his final days (Archbishop Desmond Tutu). After Sam Peek’s beloved wife Cora dies, his children are worried about him. After fifty-seven years of marriage, they are unsure how their elderly father will survive on his own. They talk about him as if he can’t hear them, questioning how he’ll run a farm, drive his truck, or live by himself. When Sam tells his children about a white dog who visits him, yet seems invisible to everyone else, they are sure that grief and old age have taken a toll on their father. But, real or not, the creature soothes Sam’s grief and ultimately reconciles him with his own mortality. In this bittersweet story of love, grief, and coming to terms with death, “master storyteller” Terry Kay takes readers on Sam’s journey with his white dog, bringing solace and comfort to the inevitable transition that all must make (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution).

Sam Peek's children are worried. Since that "saddest day" when Cora, his beloved wife of fifty-seven good years, died, no one knows how he will survive. How can this elderly man live alone on his farm? How can he keep driving his dilapidated truck down to the fields to care for his few rows of pecan trees? And when Sam begins telling his children about a dog as white as the pure driven snow -- that seems invisible to everyone but him -- his children think that grief and old age have finally taken their toll. But whether the dog is real or not, Sam Peek -- "one of the smartest men in the South when it comes to trees" -- outsmarts them all. Sam and the White Dog will dance from the pages of this bittersweet novel and into your heart, as they share the mystery of life, and begin together a warm and moving final rite of passage. Winner of the Southeastern Library Association's Outstanding Author Award.

On the 25th anniversary of its first publication, here is the definitive edition of the book Archbishop Desmond Tutu called “a hauntingly beautiful story about love, family, and relationships,” now with a new preface from the author.Sam Peek’s beloved wife of fifty-seven years, Cora, has died. His children are anxious. No one knows how Sam will survive. How can this elderly man live alone? How can he run a farm? How can he keep driving his dilapidated truck down to the fields where he cares for a few rows of pecan trees? When Sam begins telling his children about a dog that is white as a fresh-fallen snow but who is invisible to everyone else, well, his children are sure that grief and old age have finally overcome their father.But whether the dog is real or not, Sam Peek, “one of the smartest men in the South when it comes to trees,” outsmarts everyone. Sam and the White Dog dance from the pages of this bittersweet novel and straight into the reader’s heart as the two share the mystery of life and begin together a warm and moving final rite of passage as life draws to a close.

First published in 1976, The Year the Lights Came On was Terry Kay's debut novel. Revolving around the electrification of rural northeast Georgia shortly after the end of World War II, the novel has become a classic coming-of-age story. Kay, now an acclaimed writer with an international following, has reread the novel with the eyes of a seasoned storyteller. Cutting here and adding there, Kay has enriched an already highly comical and poignant work. The Year the Lights Came On is ready to find its place in the hearts of a new generation.Untreed Reads will be bringing many of the title in Terry Kay's bibliography to ebook format in 2011 and 2012.

A haunting story of love, grief, and confronting deathThe elderly Sam Peek is still mourning the death of his beloved wife when a mysterious white dog appears. Seen only by Sam, White Dog becomes a part of Sam’s grief. Though it’s unclear if White Dog is real or phantom, the creature eases Sam’s grief, brings him closer to his family, and helps him reconcile with his own mortality.Georgia Writers Hall of Fame inductee Terry Kay brings North-East Georgia to life through his elegant prose, and the thought-provoking themes of family, love, and loss will make readers come back to this touching story over and over.

First published in 1976, The Year the Lights Came On was Terry Kay's debut novel. Revolving around the electrification of rural northeast Georgia shortly after the end of World War II, the novel has become a classic coming-of-age story. Kay, now an acclaimed writer with an international following, has reread the novel with the eyes of a seasoned storyteller. Cutting here and adding there, Kay has enriched an already highly comical and poignant work. The Year the Lights Came On is ready to find its place in the hearts of a new generation.

Like his father and grandfather before him, Fergus Greybar the Fourth travels the countryside in a wagon of carnival mirrors, pulled by two magnificent white horses named Look and See. As the Mirror Man, he is welcomed everywhere by children who find delight in seeing themselves take on strange and funny shapes when looking into the six mirrors that line the inside of his wagon. But there is another mirror, one of great magic—the Seventh Mirror. In it, children see themselves not as they are, but as they wish to be.It is the magic of the Seventh Mirror that the Mirror Man uses to return a young runaway girl named Sarah to her village of Whistletown. There, a frantic and comic search for her is taking place, involving everyone from the mayor and the police chief and the town poet to a cunning seasick pirate named Jake the Hunter and his fierce-looking dog Sniffer. They all play a major role in Sarah’s revealing discovery of the meaning of home. But Sarah is not the only person to find herself in the hidden magic of the Seventh Mirror. So does the Mirror Man.

Like his father and grandfather before him, Fergus Greybar the Fourth travels the countryside in a wagon of carnival mirrors, pulled by two magnificent white horses named Look and See. As the Mirror Man, he is welcomed everywhere by children who find delight in seeing themselves take on strange and funny shapes when looking into the six mirrors that line the inside of his wagon. But there is another mirror, one of great magic--the Seventh Mirror. In it, children see themselves not as they are, but as they wish to be.It is the magic of the Seventh Mirror that the Mirror Man uses to return a young runaway girl named Sarah to her village of Whistletown. Several town characters play a major role in Sarah's revealing discovery of the meaning of home. But Sarah is not the only person to find herself in the hidden magic of the Seventh Mirror. So does the Mirror Man.