Showing results by author "Gary Paulsen" in All Categories

Rosa is an illegal immigrant from Mexico City who sells herself on the streets of Houston while dreaming of a career in modeling. Traci is a blonde beauty obsessed with becoming head cheerleader and securing her future for a good marriage. On the surface, no two 14-year-olds could appear more different. Three-time Newbery Honor-winner Gary Paulsen brings his immense talents to this rich story of a chance encounter between two young women, each seeing her life mirrored in the eyes of another.

Every time Kevin Spencer sees Tina Zabinski, the Most Beautiful Girl in the World, he’s in danger of tripping, falling, and making a fool of himself. He can hardly say a word to her. But Kev knows he’d be the perfect boyfriend for Tina. He’s not bragging. Just pointing out the obvious. Kev decides to take a scientific approach to getting a date with Tina. After all, love is based on chemistry. When new kid Cash Devine zeroes in on Tina, Kevin hustles to find the formula that will make her forget all about Cash.

For the last few years, 13-year-old Tag Jones has been running the family bait shop on the sandy Bermuda beach. He has been helping earn money ever since his father died in a scuba diving accident while searching for a legendary Spanish shipwreck. Whenever he has free time, he dives with his best friend in the azure water above the hazardous coral reefs.

For a 16-year-old boy out in the world alone for the first time, every day is an education in the hard work and boredom of migrant labor; every day teaches him something more about friendship, or hunger, or profanity, or lust - always lust. He learns how a poker game, or hitching a ride, can turn deadly. He discovers the secret sadness and generosity to be found on a lonely farm in the middle of nowhere. Then he joins up with a carnival and becomes a grunt, running a ride and shilling for the geek show. He’s living the hard carny life and beginning to see the world through carny eyes. Until her.

>In the winter life in McKinley, Minnesota, revolves around the rinks, where kids play hockey and grown-ups skate to scratchy phonograph records. Then, the year Marsh and his best friend, Willy, are 12, Carl appears at the rink, wearing a battered, old leather flight jacket and doing a strange dance that is both beautiful and disturbing to watch. It is Marsh and Willy who discover the terrible secret behind Carl’s dance, a secret that threatens to destroy him. But a small miracle occurs....

Jacob Freisten's goal in life is to be unnoticed. He's perfect at gliding past the jocks' lockers and sneaking into his English class. But he won't be unnoticed now. If he wants to pass English, he has to work on the stage crew of the school production of The Wizard of Oz. Jacob, who's usually in a fog anyway, gets the job of running the fog machine. The problem is that Maria Tresser, the girl of his dreams, is playing the Wicked Witch. Jacob has already made a fool of himself in front of Maria. How can he face her again?

They are four different people with four separate lives: Sue, a young woman distanced from her native roots; David, a traveler in search of a dream; Laura, a student seeking her parents’ understanding; and Peter, a rock star struggling to create a perfect sound.One looming fate threatens them all. And everything they love may be taken away in one fleeting second…

Some people lead and some people get out of the way. It’s a universal rule. A cosmic inevitability. Kevin Spencer is one lucky guy. Tina Zabinski, the World’s Most Beautiful, Most Perfect, Best-Smelling Girl, is finally his girlfriend. But now that he’s got the girl, will he be able to keep her?E nter his mortal enemy, Cash Devine. Handsome, smooth-talking Cash is running for class president, and he seems to have his eye on Tina. Kev’s got to dazzle her, so he decides to exercise his great political mind and run against Cash. There’s just one little problem: Kevin has to win. Gary Paulsen continues his exploration of the quirky, inventive mind of fourteen-year-old Kevin in this hilarious companion to Liar, Liar; Flat Broke; and Crush.

Fourteen-year-old Finn is a loner, living with his dad and his amazing dog, Dylan. This summer Finn is hoping for a job where he doesn’t have to talk to anyone except his buddy, Matthew. Then he meets Johanna, who’s living next door. She’s a graduate student in her 20s, cool and funny, and she treats Finn as an equal. Dylan thinks she’s great too. Johanna’s dealing with breast cancer, and Matthew and Finn help take care of her - and come to care for her.

Father-and-son writing team Gary and Jim Paulsen pick up where their Road Trip left off. Ben has been invited to try out for a special hockey academy. But Dad wants Ben to catch up to the school field trip instead. So Ben, Dad, and their dogs, Atticus and Conor, jump into their truck. Ben...

Brian ist zwölf und auf dem Weg zu seinem Vater, als der Pilot des kleinen Flugzeugs, mit dem der Junge unterwegs ist, an einem Herzinfarkt stirbt...

Gary Paulsen, a Golden Spur award-winning author, collaborates with Brian Burks for this western-mystery tale of unlikely heroes and villains that is refreshingly free of gratuitous violence and sex. Life in Turrett, New Mexico was quiet until Travis Price rode into town bleeding and gravely wounded by an arrow. Paulsen and Burks serve up a vast and heroic vision of the Old West in this crisp, action-packed and suspenseful novel.

The wonderful grandmother whom listeners saw through the eyes of a young boy in The Cookcamp reaches out to him when he is fourteen, offering him a haven from his harsh and painful family life. She arranges a summer job for him on the farm where she is a cook for bachelor brothers Gunnar and Olaf. Farm life offers the camaraderie and the routine of hard work, as well as good food, peaceful evenings spent making music together, and even dancing lessons. Life with Alida gives the boy strength and faith in himself, drawing him away from the edge and into the center of life.

Family fun takes center stage in three-time Newbery Honor winner Gary Paulsen’s hilarious novel for middle-school boys. Kevin Spencer is the glue that holds his family together. When his wacky relatives decide to have a double wedding in the backyard, Kevin takes charge. Planning two weddings is a great way to impress his girlfriend, Tina Zabinski, the Most Beautiful and Best-Smelling Girl in the World.

I should have seen it coming. A long time before it came I should have known.I was six or seven years old and there was a girl living next door named Peggy. She was a year older than me and a lot stronger and we were wrestling and she held me down.... All of a sudden it seemed there was something about girls that wasn’t all bad. I didn’t know what it was but I should have known that this first feeling with Peggy Ollendorfer meant that down the road, later, I was in for a big surprise. Afterward, when I was a little older, if you’d asked me what the surprise was like, I’d have said it was about like getting hit by a train.

Ever open your locker and find that some joker has left something really weird inside? Seventh grader Dorso Clayman opens his and finds a dead body. Thirty seconds later, it disappears. It’s not the first bizarre thing that has appeared in his locker and then vanished. The ultimate gamesters have decided to make Dorso and his buddy Frank the target of some strange techno-practical jokes. They’ve hacked into the time line, and things from the past keep appearing in the present. Soon, the pranks aren’t funny anymore - they’re dangerous.

Gary Paulsen was one of the kids who slipped through the cracks, until art and dogs saved him. So are Jake, Jojo, and Jamie, all 12-year-olds who, like Gary Paulsen, had to grow up too fast. Gary Paulsen’s three poignant novellas add up to an unforgettable book.

From three-time Newbery Honor author Gary Paulsen comes a laugh-out-loud novel about six wacky misfits who get stuck together in a school restroom and discover friendship. It seemed like a normal school day, until a horrible storm forced the very cautious school administration to make everyone...

Tony’s mom, Al, is a terrific single mother who works as a dancer at the Kitty Kat Club. Twelve-year-old Tony is a budding artist, inspired by backstage life at the club. When some of his drawings end up in an art show and catch the attention of the social services agency, Al and Tony find themselves in the middle of a legal wrangle and a media circus. Is Al a responsible mother? It’s the case of the stripper vs. the state, and Al isn’t giving Tony up without a fight.

When a small boy spends Christmas in the snowy Minnesota countryside, he becomes the official scout for his young bedridden cousin, Matthew, who is running out of secrets to explore. Matthew already knows there is no Santa Claus, and he knows his life is ending. As Christmas Eve approaches, the boy worries that he will be unable to find something magical for Matthew. But when that hopeful night arrives, the two are joined in a miraculous surprise that changes their lives forever.