There is no American writer alive who is funnier, more inquisitive, or more surprising than Julie Hecht. The Unprofessionals, her first novel, whose narrator also told the stories in the author's bestselling collection Do the Windows Open?, is a triumph of tragicomedy. The book follows the odd friendship between the narrator -- a photographer in her late forties -- and a precocious raconteur, identified only as The Boy, whom she has known since his...

Reluctantly inviting the class misfit to her birthday party, Ginger bonds with Lyla when the latter arrives early, supports her party choices, and gives her a unique gift, an encounter that compels Ginger to reconsider earlier notions.

The McCready sisters have just settled into their new home on Pine Island when they get word that an unwelcome houseguest is coming to visit for months.

Ten-year-old Rupert, from a very large, very poor family, accidently becomes part of an eccentric rich family's life beginning at Christmas, and soon sees that wealth is not everything.

An eccentric like all Helmsleys, eleven-year-old Archer escapes his overprotective mother and recruits two friends, Oliver and Adelaide, to help him plan a rescue of his long-lost grandparents, world-famous explorers who disappeared atop an iceberg in the Antarctic.

On a trip to France, Monk takes a tour through the historic underground world of the Parisian sewers and encounters a catacomb filled with ancient human remains--and one much more recent skull.

Twelve-year-old genius and outsider Willow Chance must figure out how to connect with other people and find a surrogate family for herself after her parents are killed in a car accident.

Finding a rare zucchini-colored crayon leads twelve-year-old River Monroe and his friends on an adventure with their eccentric neighbor to save Earth from invading interstellar storm troopers.

"At Great Rapscott School for Girls of Busy Parents, Ms. Rapscott teaches her students How to Get Lost on Purpose, resulting in a series of fantastical adventures that makes each learn a little something about courage, strength, bravery, and teamwork"--

The truck driver is decked out like a rhinestone cowboy, only instead of a guitar he's slinging a gun -- and Odd Thomas is on the wrong end of the barrel. Though he narrowly dodges a bullet, Odd can't outrun the shocking vision burned into his mind .... or the destiny that will drive him into a harrowing showdown with absolute evil.