Books with author paula fox

Ten-year-old James leaves school one day and goes down to the basement of an abandoned house, as he has done many times before. It is here that he enacts the fantasy that his mother has woven for him: he is an African prince in hiding, guarded by his three great-aunts while his mother is in Africa fixing everything, telling people about him and the other African princes so that they can come together in their robes and feathers and lead the lives of princes again. In reality, James lives in a one-room apartment with his father's three aunts. His mother is sick and has been in the hospital for a while; his father, who walked out on them, has been gone even longer.But on this trip to the abandoned house, James has bad luck: he is discovered there by Gino, Stick, and Blue, tough boys not much older than James who have a dog-stealing racket: they steal dogs and collect reward money for "finding" them. The boys force James to go with them and do what they tell him to do, and they keep him away from home overnight. "They made me ride for miles," he tells his aunts when he is finally home. "I went to Coney. I saw the Atlantic Ocean..."

"The painter, who was sitting on a stool, stared at Ivan so steadily that Ivan felt a faint touch of fear, as though he were being asked a question he could never answer." Thus begins the compelling story of an unusual relationship between a sensitive young boy and an artist whose appearance in his life proves to be life-changing.Ivan's father is a businessman who pays little attention to him, his mother is dead, and he spends most of his time at his home in New York, attended only by the Haitian housekeeper. His father commissions an artist, Matt Mustazza, to paint a portrait of Ivan, but he also gives his son another gift: permission to accompany Matt on a trip to paint an old mansion in Florida. The idea of driving all the way from New York to Florida excites him in a way he's never felt before. Ivan, Matt, and his eccentric friend Miss Manderby and her cat Alyosha pile into a "crazy old car" and head south, where Ivan meets a free-spirited girl, Geneva, and begins the painful but rewarding process of finding himself.