Books with author Susan Whitehurst

Dealing with a parent's illness can be difficult at any age It is 1967 and twelve year old Ruth Iverson's world pretty much revolves around her friends, a boy she likes, the Monkees and spending time with her Dad doing special stuff like watching the Toronto Maple Leafs win the Stanley Cup. But she is soon to realize that her mom's strange behaviour which has become an embarrassment, are symptoms of a disease that will affect the family's life and possibly Ruth's future. While she watches major events like the marriage of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, the birth of Priscilla Presley, the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy and Neil Armstrong walking on the moon, Ruth faces some major life events of her own and struggles to come to terms with the changes they bring.

While volunteering as a study buddy to reluctant readers, I noticed a need for high-interest reading materials for emergent readers. The books need to have simple texts and visually appealing illustrations. Thus was born: Where Do Animals Go in Winter? It is a question that provokes the curiosity of children, and some of its answers are familiar. It explores the realm of possible homes animals have in winter. The illustrations are designed to encourage children to explore their surroundings and the ending question to provoke their imaginations.

These are the rules at foster mother Amelia's farm--the rules that saved Rachel when she first came to stay at Walton Lake as a troubled girl. Now, after a horrifying crisis at work, Rachel has run back to the farm again.But she doesn't find the peace she's hoping for. There are new fostered teens at the farm with their own demons, and the sprawling family she became a part of at Amelia's farm seems to be full of heartbreak and worry. There's Crystal, grieving her twin sister. Jodie and Zac are struggling to bring a pregnancy to term. Kate is reeling from her mother's abandonment.And Amelia, stalwart and dependable and loving Amelia, their glue, has become worryingly forgetful. A sweeping story of love and redemption, Waiting for Still Water will delight fans of Maeve Binchy and Lesley Crewe.

Franny Callaghan feels invisible. With a missing mother only seen occasionally who speaks to the family through the closed door of her bedroom or the ensuite bathroom and a father and younger sister, who travel most of the time, home long enough to wash their underwear and re-pack before heading to the next competition so her sister can be an Olympic speed skater, Franny feels alone most of the time. Franny's brother died a few years before and is only seen in the photos on the wall. Her family hasn't spoken of him since the day of his big funeral and all the news coverage of the tragic accident that killed eight members of the Ridgewood High School Orchestra and one of his teachers. And Franny Callaghan remains... just the awkward middle kid in a family that used to look like everyone else's.What if Franny just took off to go see her brother's favorite band on the anniversary of his death? Maybe that would be the jolt her family so badly needed.