about the book
There are few worse ways a summer could start than with the sudden death of your mother, but that is just what eleven-year-old tomboy Madison McGee has to suffer through. Having never known her father and with nowhere else to go, Madison moves in with her Grandma Florida in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico.
Grandma Florida is kind of a shopping addict. Her TV is always turned to shopping shows and her house is full of bizarre, useless things she orders from the television. Her only neighbor is a crazy lady and a mean junkyard mutt. Needless to say, Madison is getting kind of bored. She misses her old life terribly, a life of jeans and a plain T-shirt and time spent in the great outdoors, the life her grandma is trying to eliminate by making her wear ridiculous “cupcake dresses” and such.
Everything changes when a MegaPix 6000 TV set shows up on her grandma’s doorstep. When Madison tries to use it for the first time, with the press of a button, she is zapped into the show she was watching! Lights, camera, action, peril! Madison and Grandma Florida go to Florida’s shopping shows, Madison’s favorite sitcom, and even a reality show in the Amazon—and through it all, with the help of a little magic, Madison and her grandma learn a few lessons.
about the author
Laurie B. Arnold got her start in writing and designing interactive computer games, at least 50 of them! Some game stories she got to work with include characters like Harry Potter, Little Bear, Madeline, Clifford, and SpongeBob. In addition to computer games, Laurie wrote scripts for animated children’s TV shows, like Dragon Tales on PBS and What-a-Mess on ABC. What-a-Mess was based off of Laurie’s Labrador retriever, who at one point ate up a whole couch and also ate the seatbelts in her car.
After her sons, Jordan and Dylan, went off to college, Laurie decided to try to write a novel, for two reasons: to be able to dig into characters more deeply, and to prove to herself that she didn’t have to fail at such a large project. She hopes she has succeeded!
Laurie and her husband, Steve, live on a rocky beach on Bainbridge Island, Washington, together with Scout, a fuzzy dog, and Zoe, their psychotic cat who spends most of her time hiding underneath the bed.
Source:
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