Books published by publisher MOTES

~ After losing both parents, 10-year-old Betsy Johnson and her younger brother, Tad, have been sent to live in the Shaker community at Pleasant Hill, Kentucky, in late 1834. They hardly know their only relatives, Aunt Emma and Uncle Michael, who had given up all their worldly possessions five years earlier to live communally with 500 other Believers. Betsy has been frightened by the stories her preacher, Rev. Simpson, has told about the Shakers. He says they are possessed by the devil, speak in tongues and twirl themselves into a frenzy as part of their worship. Is this any place she wants to grow up? Betsy feels responsible for maintaining the memory of her parents and caring for her brother. Stripped of nearly everything familiar, she also feels terribly alone, but that loneliness fades with time as Betsy is befriended by an artistic girl named Grace, whose wagging tongue fills her in on the gossip about the Sisters and Brethren at Pleasant Hill, as well as the duties of children in the society. Betsy especially loves time spent in the garden. It reminds her of home - and her ma, who had grown herbs and used them to treat ailing neighbors. Betsy also seals an uneasy relationship with an older girl, Ruth, whom Betsy rescues from certain death after Ruth plunges through the ice during a late winter outing. Once safely in the infirmary, Ruth doesn't respond to treatment, so Betsy wrestles with whether she should divulge Ruth's secret in order to save the girl's life. Betsy begins to realize her own healing gifts, but will she accept Pleasant Hill as her new home and the Shakers as her new family? This work of historical fiction for young readers is the first in a three-part series published within the "Think Young Collection," a division of MotesBooks. (www.MotesBooks.com) ~

Callie Rose is an eleven-year-old with lots of common sense. She likes to go fishing, and she loves her Granny. This year, Callie Rose's mom has gone away, which makes Callie Rose's daddy sad. She and her little brother, Kenny, have moved into Granny and Pap's farm house down the road while the family sorts things out. Even though it's a confusing time, Callie Rose has friends and plenty to do. For one thing, a couple of boys challenge Callie Rose and her rebellious friend, Olive Ellis, to a softball contest in the field. For another, she gets to eat Aunt Faye's famous red velvet cake and jump on the swinging bridge at the big family reunion at Granny's homeplace. Back on the farm, Callie Rose helps raise baby goats, gathers eggs from the henhouse, and stalks a mean old snapping turtle. She wades in Judy Branch, the creek that Pap says is "clean enough to drink from," and she defends her overweight cousin, Marlene. In the midst of it all, Callie Rose figures out some important lessons about growing up and understanding why grown-ups do the things they do. (www.MotesBooks.com)

~ "So here's the deal with my mom: she's recovering. She has been hurt for a long time--but it's not the kind you can see, like a broken leg that gets fixed by a cast. It's the invisible kind that gets fixed by a program." Earlene has a lot going on at home, and home is just where she prefers to keep it. She seeks distraction in her neighborhood and at school, but sometimes those places bring more questions than answers. With the help of some unexpected lessons and a homeless dog named Tripod, Earlene starts to sort out her feelings about herself, her family, and her place in the world. With an endearing and authentic voice, author Erin Fitzgerald takes the reader into the world of twelve-year-old Earlene. Readers, in turn, find themselves effortlessly taking Earlene (and her world) into their hearts. ~ www.MotesBooks.com ~

~ Ten-year-old Tad Johnson is a shy, sensitive boy who just doesn't fit into Shaker Village. He's lived here for two years but hasn't managed to master the chores of planting and harvesting the crops or taking care of the livestock. Tad gets too distracted by the music of the wind blowing through the grasses. He dreams up dances from watching a bumblebee communicate with its hive, capturing these feelings and images in a journal that he takes everywhere with him. No one, not even his big sister, Betsy, is allowed to read it. It's for his eyes only. It seems to Tad that everyone has a gift to contribute to village life, everyone but him. The other boys tease him unmercifully-especially the biggest bully, Fred. Their pranks turn dangerous when a raging bull charges into the pasture where Tad is daydreaming. He escapes with minor injuries, but the mystery remains as to who set the bull loose on Tad. Tad's best times are when he's woodworking with Michael, his music-minded uncle. Michael encourages Tad to compose his own tunes and tries to convince Tad that a community needs all kinds of gifts-physical and artistic-to grow. The lesson is quickly dashed when Fred snatches and ruins Tad's treasured journal. Feeling helpless and defeated, Tad runs away into a threatening thunderstorm. When Betsy tracks Tad into the storm, she becomes trapped under a falling tree. Tad must find a way to save his sister. He succeeds by using his artistic gifts, but later learns that it will take courage of another sort altogether to face the physical limitations caused by injuries to his legs as a result of the storm. His new challenge is to find the place just right for him in his Shaker community. (www.MotesBooks.com) ~

When Abby finds herself drifting in and out of events from the past, she enlists the help of her best friend, Harper, to figure out what to do. And though Harper is at first reluctant to believe the strange tale Abby tells, she can’t ignore the message in her friend’s diary. The handwriting is Abby’s but the voice belongs to Eliza Hoskins, a Civil War nurse who needs their help — to save lives! HERE & THEN, a novel for young readers, is subtitled "A Civil War Time-Travel Tale." (Revised edition published by MotesBooks in 2009 - www.MotesBooks.com)

"You're more likely to hear her than see her ... and when you do, better watch your back!" In the small community of Stone Mill, the Coyote Woman has become legendary. Everyone enjoys telling and listening to tales about her, but most folks say she's not real. Sarah knows otherwise. Struggling with the death of her father, Sarah and her friend, Wade, explore the alluring caves and ravines of southern Indiana, where they piece together clues about the mysterious Coyote Woman. Can a legend be some strange mix of myth and truth? (www.MotesBooks.com)

TREE OF LIFE is a story of freedom and friendship on the Kentucky frontier. Third in the Pleasant Hill series of books about children in a 19th Century Shaker community, this volume is authored by Rebecca Mitchell Turney as a solo effort. (In the series' previous two books, Turney had collaborated with Marie Mitchell, whose prior contributions are credited in this book's acknowledgments.) Series illustrator Pam Dixon has again added her unique eye to this project, as she did with the first two volumes in this history-based fiction series for MotesBooks' Think Young Collection. SYNOPSIS ... Grace, at 15, is feeling the pinch of the simple Shaker life in 1839. She longs for the feathered hats, pretty petticoats, and dressy life of "the World" outside her isolated village at Pleasant Hill. But the Sisters insist she churn out plain, boring, everyday cloth at a weaving loom. She enlists the help of a forbidden boyfriend in a bold plot to escape the stifling rules of the Shakers. She secretly weaves a colorful silk scarf to enter in the upcoming county fair contest. The prize money will buy her ticket to freedom on the next stagecoach to the bustling big city. Her plan is foolproof. Nothing is going to stand in her way- except the one thing Grace couldn't possibly have imagined. ~ (www.MotesBooks.com) ~

This 100-page volume from the MotesBooks "Think Young Collection" is helpful to new or young poets who are studying the craft. Like sports? Not so sure about poetry? This book will score big with you! Self-proclaimed "sports nut" and poet Barbara Smith offers a collection of her own poems ... and they're all about athletics! Plus, she has added a useful bonus: comments alongside each poem are designed to get you thinking, help you understand these selections, and make poetry in general more interesting and less mysterious. Sound like a winner? Let the poems begin! (www.MotesBooks.com)