Books with author Stephanie S. Tolan

This third story about the madcap family introduced in Stephanie Tolan’s Newbery Honor Book Surviving the Applewhites features even more outlandish adventures and will appeal to fans of the Applewhites and those meeting them for the first time.E.D. and Jake are doing their best to forget their bewildering kiss—after all, they’re practically family—and get back to “normal” life with the decidedly abnormal, highly creative Applewhites.When the family’s biggest fan, Jeremy Bernstein, pulls up to Wit’s End in an “Art Bus,” he brings with him a proposal for an Education Expedition: a cross-country road trip, educational quest, and video-documented competition for a big cash prize. Jeremy also drags along his troubled but beautiful niece, Melody. She’ll be joining the expedition with her own rebellious flair, much to Jake’s delight . . . and E.D.’s exasperation.With characteristic Applewhite enthusiasm, the artists face disastrous performances, fainting goats, and some very bad ideas—but can they make it through the road trip in one piece?

In this mind-expanding book, Newbery Honor and Christopher Award-winning author Stephanie S. Tolan, who has been telling stories in the form of plays, novels, non-fiction books and articles for children and adults all her life, shares what she has learned about the power of story not just to express our experiences, but to create them. What Tolan calls Story Principle, explored in these pages, challenges the common view that reality is fixed and immutable, that we have little or no control over it, and that we live our lives within it as best we can. Story Principle suggests the radical idea that we live the stories we tell. Therefore, reality—a collection of stories—is infinitely changeable, one story and one story-teller at a time. Included here are not just ways to recognize stories and the ways they play out in your experience, but specific techniques for replacing them if you wish. This challenging book is an invitation to change your life by changing the stories you live.

Devastated by the dismantling of the group home where the “Ark Kids” discovered their extraordinary mental powers, and overwhelmed by the violence of an eco-terrorist bombing, Elijah has fled into the Adirondack wilderness, intending to leave a world he cannot save. But he is found by the terrorists and taken to their hidden compound, where a raven, like the one he becomes in his dreams, urges him to survive. Sharing a house with Amber and Kenny, the children of the terrorist leader, and their American Indian stepmother, he retreats into what he calls “dreamtime.” But he cannot deny his growing mental connection with Amber. Could she, too, be an Ark Kid? She has been taught that to save the planet from technological development, there must be “necessary losses,” like the deaths in the recent bombing. But faced with the reality of her father’s planned apocalypse, Amber at last begins to question her upbringing. Can the raven’s flight save her, Elijah and the world?

Bran Slocum stands out from the moment he arrives at Ridgewood High, with his oddly unfocused eye and his unusual mode of dress. The immediate target of bullies, he seems strangely aloof and untouched. Sixteen year old Molly Pepper, herself an outsider, is intrigued by his attitude and sets out to befriend him, persuading her best friend David to join her in reaching out to him. Molly and David begin to see that Bran is hiding some sort of secret, but they have no idea how shocking the secret is until the truth hits Ridgewood—in headlines that put Bran and his new friends in terrible danger, as the whole town turns against them. Events spin out of control and fear spreads like a deadly contagion. Their friendship deepening as they face the plague of hatred together, Bran, Molly and David can only hope they will be able to stand against it.

Jack Semple and E.D. Applewhite are back, in this middle-grade sequel to Stephanie S. Tolan’s Newbery Honor Book Surviving the Applewhites.Teenager E.D., the not so artistic, not at all eccentric member of the unconventional Applewhite clan, can't believe the plan her father has hatched to save the family from financial disaster. He’s decided to transform their rural North Carolina farm into a summer camp for creative children.Soon the farm is packed with temperamental artists, out-of-control campers, and an even more out-of-control goat. It's all a little too much for structure-loving E.D., even before threatening notes begin appearing in the family mailbox. Together with Jake Semple--the boy who survived his first year in the Applewhites' home school—she's determined to save the camp and the family from disaster.Like Carl Hiassan’s Chomp, Applewhites at Wit's End combines outrageous humor and the frustrations and joys of being part of a family.

This third story about the madcap family introduced in Stephanie Tolan’s Newbery Honor Book Surviving the Applewhites features even more outlandish adventures and will appeal to fans of the Applewhites and those meeting them for the first time.E.D. and Jake are doing their best to forget their bewildering kiss—after all, they’re practically family—and get back to “normal” life with the decidedly abnormal, highly creative Applewhites.When the family’s biggest fan, Jeremy Bernstein, pulls up to Wit’s End in an “Art Bus,” he brings with him a proposal for an Education Expedition: a cross-country road trip, educational quest, and video-documented competition for a big cash prize. Jeremy also drags along his troubled but beautiful niece, Melody. She’ll be joining the expedition with her own rebellious flair, much to Jake’s delight . . . and E.D.’s exasperation.With characteristic Applewhite enthusiasm, the artists face disastrous performances, fainting goats, and some very bad ideas—but can they make it through the road trip in one piece?

Will anyone take on Jake Semple? Jake Semple is notorious. Rumor has it he burned down his old school and got kicked out of every school in his home state. Only one place will take him now, and that's a home school run by the Applewhites, a chaotic and hilarious family of artists. The only one who doesn't fit the Applewhite mold is E.D. -- a smart, sensible girl who immediately clashes with the unruly Jake. Jake thinks surviving this one will be a breeze . . . but is he really as tough or as bad as he seems?

Bran Slocum stands out from the moment he arrives at Ridgewood High, with his oddly unfocused eye and his unusual mode of dress. The immediate target of bullies, he seems strangely aloof and untouched. Sixteen year old Molly Pepper, herself an outsider, is intrigued by his attitude and sets out to befriend him, persuading her best friend David to join her in reaching out to him. Molly and David begin to see that Bran is hiding some sort of secret, but they have no idea how shocking the secret is until the truth hits Ridgewood—in headlines that put Bran and his new friends in terrible danger, as the whole town turns against them. Events spin out of control and fear spreads like a deadly contagion. Their friendship deepening as they face the plague of hatred together, Bran, Molly and David can only hope they will be able to stand against it.

Learning to walk again is the easy part.For twelve-year-old Charley, recovering from the accident that shattered her leg is nowhere near as difficult as facing the solitude of a summer without her best friend and with a father who does nothing, now, but work. Solitude means time to think, time to hear for the first time the awful silence left in her world two years ago by her mother's death.But the summer holds a surprise for Charley, in the form of a mysterious dog who appears in the woods across the lake from her home. In order to connect with this wild spirit she names Coyote, Charley will have to do more than just walk. She will have to follow Coyote into the heart of her memories: the woods her mother loved so much. And she will have to learn to listen past the silence.This unsentimental, unforgettable story comes straight from the heart of Newbery Honor author Stephanie S. Tolan. As she describes Charley's difficult emotional and physical journey, she weaves together themes of nature, family, and love into a complex and powerful portrait of recovery.