Books with author Norma Fox Mazer

It's little sister vs. big in this fresh take on a classic struggle by a master storyteller.Everything ten year-old Sprig wants, her older sister Dakota already has. Everything Sprig does, Dakota does better. And anytime Sprig complains, Dakota just grins and calls her a baby. It’s enough to make a kid wish her sister would disappear.But in a year when Sprig’s father is away, her favorite neighbor is ill, and the class bully is acting almost like, well, a boyfriend, Sprig discovers that allies come in unexpected shapes. Sometimes they’re even related to you.

Ten-year-old Sprig wears her heart on her sleeve, so when her father, an engineer and architect, leaves to build schools in Afghanistan, she has trouble making the adjustment. Tears also flow when it comes to the teasing dished out by her older sister, Dakota. In small, but well-defined moments, Sprig deals with the superiority of place granted to an older sibling, squabbles with friends, and faces first love, both for Dakota, and rather surprisingly, for Sprig herself. This short book is best catagorized as a slice of life, brought under the umbrella of Dad's absence. It's the characters, though, who really make everything come together. Mazer hits just the right note with each, from the children to the elderly neighbor Sprig saves when the woman has a stroke. In an astute bit of push-pull, Sprig is called a heroine, even though she knows she could have gotten help sooner. A solid choice for an underserved age group.

My name is Pete Connors and I've been leading a double life for eight years. I live with my uncle and tell people my parents are dead... but it's a lie. My whole life is a lie, because I could never risk telling anyone the truth. Now I've met Cary. She's someone I can really talk to. Someone I want to share my whole life with. But now I have a choice. Do I continue the lie... or tell Cary the truth... and risk losing her?

He could be any man, any respectable, ordinary man. But he's not. This man watches the five Herbert girls—Beauty, Mim, Stevie, Fancy, and Autumn—with disturbing fascination. Unaware of his scrutiny and his increasingly agitated and forbidden thoughts about them, the sisters go on with their ordinary everyday lives—planning, arguing, laughing, and crying—as if nothing bad could ever breach the safety of their family. In alternating points of view, Norma Fox Mazer manages to interweave the lives of predator and prey in this unforgettable psychological thriller.