Books with author Norma Fox Mazer

Mom held me around the waist, and I bent and kissed her. "I love you, honey," she said. "Love you, too." It was automatic. That's what I can't forget.When a heart attack takes her mom's life, Sarabeth suddenly loses the only family and home she has ever known. Cynthia and Billy, friends of her mother, take in Sarabeth to live with them and their baby in their tiny one-bedroom apartment. Before long it becomes clear to Sarabeth that she is a burden to them, an intrusion in their lives. She wants to leave, but where can she go?With startling emotional accuracy and depth, Newbery Honor-winning author Norma Fox Mazer captures what it's like to lose everything but the memories of a home and a mother, and to gain the courage to heal deep wounds.

Sisters, Her sisters, Always her sisters. Karen has never been anything more than the youngest sister in the Freed family. Liz is the poetic beauty. Tobi is the passionate, intelligent one. Karen spends her life watching her two older sisters, somehow feeling they're more important, more real than she is. But this year, there are changes in the family. Liz is out of school, trying to make a career for herself as a writer. Tobi is involved with a man much older than she is, who has a family of his won. And Karen's friendship with Marisa and Davey is helping her to create a place for herself, apart from the others. Then into the middle of the sisters comes Scott, Liz's almost-fiance. There, Karen's mother says, is a man who likes women. He is a friend to them all, but to Karen in particular. He helps Karen find a summer job. He lets her take care of him when he gets sick. He understands what she needs, who she is, how she thinks. And he kisses her. Evoking the depth of feeling that hides within an ordinary family, Norma Fox Mazer tells the emotional powerful story of a younger sister's unfounded love for her older sister's boyfriend and the indelible mark it makes on the lives of three sisters.

Joyce doesn't mind living near a garbage dump. What she does mind is the endless teasing she has to endure from the kids at school, who call her the Dump Queen. Yet being different doesn't seem to bother Mrs. Fish, the new school custodian, and she turns out to be the one person who understands what it's like to be an outsider. This delightful, unforgettable story celebrates the joy of finding friendship in unlikely places.

At fifteen, Toni Chessmore was happy with her life. She had parents who adored her and each other. Her best friend lived next door and was everyting a best friend should be. Toni's life was just about perfect...or so she thought.But that was before her best friend left for California, before they almost ended their perfect friendship over a boy, and before Toni heard a long-buried secret about her family that made her world come crashing down around her. Yet it was those bitter truths that let her see that nothing in life was perfect...including the people she loved the most.

Mom held me around the waist, and I bent and kissed her. "I love you, honey," she said. "Love you, too." It was automatic. That's what I can't forget.When a heart attack takes her mom's life, Sarabeth suddenly loses the only family and home she has ever known. Cynthia and Billy, friends of her mother, take in Sarabeth to live with them and their baby in their tiny one-bedroom apartment. Before long it becomes clear to Sarabeth that she is a burden to them, an intrusion in their lives. She wants to leave, but where can she go?With startling emotional accuracy and depth, Newbery Honor-winning author Norma Fox Mazer captures what it's like to lose everything but the memories of a home and a mother, and to gain the courage to heal deep wounds.