Sunday, September 11, 2016

What is Barbara O'Connor reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Barbara O'Connor, author of Wish.

Her entry begins:
I just finished two books for young readers that I adored.

Lucky Strikes by Louis Bayard is a young adult historical history novel set in Virginia during the Great Depression. What a writer he is!

The publisher’s description:
With her mama recently dead and her pa sight unseen since birth, Amelia is suddenly in charge of her younger brother and sister―and of the family gas station. Harley Blevins, local king and emperor of Standard Oil, is in hot pursuit to clinch his fuel monopoly. To keep him at bay and keep her family out of foster care, Melia must come up with a father―and fast. And so when a hobo rolls out of a passing truck, Melia grabs opportunity by its beard. Can she hold off the hounds till she comes of age?
The characters are so well developed. It’s...[read on]
About Wish, from the publisher:
Eleven-year-old Charlie Reese has been making the same secret wish every day since fourth grade. She even has a list of all the ways there are to make the wish, such as cutting off the pointed end of a slice of pie and wishing on it as she takes the last bite. But when she is sent to the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina to live with family she barely knows, it seems unlikely that her wish will ever come true. That is until she meets Wishbone, a skinny stray dog who captures her heart, and Howard, a neighbor boy who proves surprising in lots of ways. Suddenly Charlie is in serious danger of discovering that what she thought she wanted may not be what she needs at all.

From award-winning author Barbara O'Connor comes a middle-grade novel about a girl who, with the help of a true-blue friend, a big-hearted aunt and uncle, and the dog of her dreams, unexpectedly learns the true meaning of family in the least likely of places.
Visit Barbara O'Connor's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Barbara O'Connor & Ruby and Matty.

The Page 69 Test: Wish.

Writers Read: Barbara O'Connor.

--Marshal Zeringue