Paris has just come for piano lessons, not chopped-liver sandwiches or French lessons or free advice. But when old Mrs. Rosen gives her a little bit more than she can handle, it might be just what Paris needs in order to understand the bully in her brother’s life . . . and the bullies of the world.
This companion novel to the award-winning Sahara Special is an affecting look at what it means to be your brother’s keeper, and at how we hold on to hope when the world is more than we can handle. (Rose-colored glasses optional.)
Hunky Dory's mother always told her, "You'll be the wickedest witch wherever the four winds blow." And why not? She's at the top of her class in charm school. She can make flowers wilt like wet spaghetti. And she can turn any prince into a frog-but she always changes him back. That's when she knows she has a problem.
Hunky Dory's interest in wishcraft over witchcraft gets her kicked out of charm school. Now she's determined to follow her heart and become a fairy godmother. But how to go about doing it? She gives a woodsman a new mustache, and grants Wolf his strange wish for a grandmother costume. Finally, motivated by jealousy over her friend Rumpelstiltskin's crush on the girl in the roomful of straw, she meets the ticket to realizing her career dream-Cinderella.
This fresh, funny twist on fairy tales is just right for girls who have not quite outgrown the magic of classic stories-and who are open to unconventional happily-ever-afters!
Esmé tells us about the night she and her mother became "egg vigilantes" against an illegally parked car; her freewheeling first school, where kids sat on sofas instead of at desks and could choose disco dancing instead of math; her dangerous neighborhood, which her father made seem friendly and wondrous; the Passover dinner when she stole a matzoh right out from under a rabbi; the awe-inspiring, life-threatening Chicago snowstorms; and lessons about love from tea-reading gypsies and Popeye cartoons.
In stories that perfectly evoke the perspective of her ten-year-old self, author Esmé Raji Codell demonstrates her gift for making the ordinary extraordinary, and the unusual familiar. SING A SONG OF TUNA FISH is a memoir of a Chicago childhood; a tribute to the art of attention; and most of all, a joyful listening experience for kids and families.
There are two files on Sahara Jones. The one the school counselor keeps is evidence that she's a fifth grader who needs special education. The other is the book Sahara is secretly writing, her Heart-Wrenching Life Story and Amazing Adventures.
The latest chapter in her book unfolds when her mother insists that she be taken out of special ed. So Sahara is facing fifth grade in a regular classroom, again. Enter, Miss Pointy, the new fifth grade teacher. With her elegant colored lipstick, and strange subjects such as "Puzzling" and "Time Travel," she's like no other teacher Sahara has ever known. Through Miss Pointy's unusual teaching, storytelling, and quiet support, Sahara finds the courage to overcome her fears and prove which file shows her true self.
