Books with author Roberta Perry

Be Careful What You Wish For is the first novel in the exciting new series, The Adventures of Booper and Harry. Harry is a troubled teenager with a huge, caring heart and a dysfunctional family suffering from the effects of alcoholism and a bitter divorce. She wants a dog more than anything, and she finds one that is being terribly abused by an alcoholic, mad criminal. The story takes Harry and her Redhawks soccer team on a wild adventure of unexpected danger and incredible courage in the face of pure evil.Can Harry, the child of an alcoholic and a severely depressed mother, break through her painful mistakes to become the better person she wants in her heart to be? Will she achieve her atheletic dream: Score the winning goal in the soccer championship? Or will her repeated mistakes crush her dreams and put her into deadly peril? Can Harry and the Redhawks rescue 'Booper,' before he dies a miserable death? Can they triumph over the tough, unexpected consequences of their good intentions? Will they learn an unsettling lesson: Be Careful What You Wish For because you might just get more than you bargained for? This novel asks and answers all these tough dilemmas as Booper and Harry sprint onto the "soccer field" of young adult fiction and win their way into our hearts.This first Booper and Harry adventure challenges "tweens and teens" to become far better, far stronger and far more compassionate people than they think they can be.Through the eyes of Booper, Harry and the Redhawks, young people are encouraged to ask–and answer–the deepest questions of how to:Defeat true evil with great goodDo what's moral and ethical rather than blindly obey unjust lawOutsmart abusive government to protect the human rights of deserving peopleHelp their families and their friends recover from deadly addictionsOvercome subtle, unyielding prejudice with reason, acceptance and true compassion andDefend girls' and women's rights from extreme, even deadly cultural practices.

Harry Chapman, a troubled "tween," is swept up in the swirl of her parents’ nasty divorce, her dad’s recovery from alcoholism, and the mounting pressure of her new life in near poverty. She seeks solace in her dream of owning a magnificent dog. She finds a dog suffering from hideous abuse by a criminal lunatic. Her pleas for help are ignored by her parents, her teachers and even her teammates on her diverse and superb soccer team, the Redhawks. Harry, struggling with her own deep fears, is pushed beyond her limits. She piles mistake on top of mistake, lie on top of lie, as she stumbles toward her dream. She is punished by her Mom for her serious mistakes and shocked when her dire predictions are so wrong. Severely depressed and confused by her torturous thoughts, Harry makes the "best worst mistake of her life." Does it lead to justice and joy or to deadly peril? Is pursuing her dream along the not-so-lonesome highway the right thing, or is it just illegal and selfish? In a wild adventure, Harry learns the hard way to be careful what she wishes for. Harry, her best friend Glenda, and her teammates—Rory, Magda, Peter, Jorge, Keysha and Bu—must call on all of their athletic skills and dig deep to find new strength to try to save Booper from a horrible death. Can these intrepid Redhawks drive the evildoer to his knees? Can they prevail despite the rude surprise that their best intentions have paved a road of painful consequences? Can true justice prevail despite the baffling laws that seem to reward evil and punish good? In a gripping trial, can Harry and the wily prosecutor outfox the tenacious defense attorney to ensure that the evil abuser receives his well-deserved punishment?Does the outcome bring its own joys, or does it portend a reality very different from Harry’s dreams? In this thrilling new adventure series, Booper and Harry, a mighty duo, must rely on their own daring and the courage of the Redhawks, her relentless soccer team, if they are to triumph over evil. Or the wickedness will overwhelm their town in a relentless tide of destruction.These tides sweeping through their hometown? Animal abuse. Child abuse. Drug epidemics. Gangs. Addiction. Bigotry. Suicide. Mental illness. Corruption. Terrorism. Intolerance and injustice. Why do these these global perils plague Harry and Booper, her gentle warrior dog, in a small town far from any major city? Can Harry overcome her own family’s dysfunctions and triumph over the evil infesting her hometown? This series explores the damage and the danger these modern epidemics inflict on the Redhawks and their friends and families. These compelling mysteries pit Booper and Harry against the menacing perpetrators of these political, social, and cultural ills who threaten their safety, security and happiness.