Books in An Avon Camelot Book series

It's Just so stupid, asking us to write our life for homework. It's not even a weekend!Alice Williamson-Stone doesn't see how she can write her life story as a class assignment. How can she fit 9 1/2 years into a couple of pages? Anyway, what's interesting in her life is not the "family and pets" stuff her teacher asked for. Her pets have died, and the only family she has is her mother. Until recently she had a beloved, interfering grandmother--Gene--but she's gone from Alice's life. Besides, as Alice discovered ages ago, she was born by accident, and that's the sort of private thing you don't write about for school. Alice does the assignment but she thinks it's pretty boring, until in doing it she discovers a need to write about her true life--the exciting, complicated, private parts.In her secret notebook, Alice begins to write her"{ilustrated} ortoblography." Alice writes about her mother's difficult early life and her determination to become a "professional single parent." She writes how Gene, her absent father's mother, came along, and how she changed Alice's life, making it richer in experience but also more complicated. And she records on going quarrels between her mother and grandmother about how to bring Alice up, which ended with the Big Row. Now Alice has just her Number One person, her mum, struggling with problems of money, career, health, where to live, and how to manage on her own--problems Alice can only deal with by writing about them. Except when she tries to help . . Lynne Reid Banks offers a compelling story of a creative child caught in the middle of a difficult, but very real and increasingly common situation. Poignant, funny, and startlingly honest, Alice-by-Accident is certain to touch the heart of any child who has ever felt different, and of any adult who has to deal with the problems of children who come by accident.

Ever since sixteen-year-old Tabitha Fortune was a child growing up in Rim, South Dakota, she's heard stories about ghost horses-nightmare creatures whose giant bones haunt the sandstone cliffs near the Badlands. When paleontologist Dr. Phineas X. Parker announces plans to dig for these bones, Tabitha vows to join his crew.But this is 1899, and the world has different expectations for young women. Tabitha's preacher father urges her to abandon her interest in science. "Pray for a godly husband", he lectures, "not a godless education." Even Dr. Parker discourages Tabitha, saying, "Vertebrate paleontology is no place for a lady." That leaves Tabitha with just one choice-and being a "lady" has nothing to do with it.

"A handbook for parents and children about celebrating the African-American harvest festival. The first two chapters define the holiday: its principles, vocabulary, etc. The third chapter takes readers through the seven days, describing what to do and sometimes how to do it. There is also a chapter with crafts....Another chapter offers ideas for gifts and recipes. Walter uses the tone of a personal reminiscence to great effect here....A worthwhile purchase."--School Library Journal.

From July 1942 until August 1944, a young girl named Anne Frank kept a diary. Keeping a diary isn't unusual. Lots of girls do. But Anne's diary was unique. It chronicled the two years she and her family spent hiding from the Germans who were determined to annihilate all the Jews in Europe. In this sensitive and thoughtful introduction to the Holocaust and to the life of one of its best known victims, acclaimed author Johanna Hurwitz deftly evokes the background of World War II while capturing the unforgettable spirit and tragedy of Anne's life.From July 1942 until August 1944, a young girl named Anne Frank kept a diary. Keeping a diary isn't unusual. Lots of girls do. But Anne's diary was unique. It chronicled the two years she and her family spent hiding from the Germans who were determined to annihilate all the Jews in Europe. In this sensitive and thoughtful introduction to the Holocaust and to the life of one of its best known victims, acclaimed author Johanna Hurwitz deftly evokes the background of World War II while capturing the unforgettable spirit and tragedy of Anne's life.