about the book
What was her mother thinking! Emma Freke! (AM A FREAK!) Did she even say the name out loud first? But Emma’s mother doesn’t exactly think in the same way most people do. The free-spirited Italian Donatella refuses to be called mom, runs a bead shop but is never there, and is an avid serial dater! Twelve-year-old Emma is left to keep the shop going, while taking over the duties as family caretaker. She is also responsible for her kind-of-out-it grandfather and his extremely gassy bulldog! Emma doesn’t fit in anywhere. Nearly six feet tall with bright red hair and way smarter than her peers, she’s labeled a freak. Thankfully she doesn’t have to go to school anymore! For her twelfth birthday, Donatello gave her home schooling. A couple of problems: Donatello has no intention of teaching Emma anything nor did she tell the school that Emma was not going to be showing up. That’s not surprising. Donatello doesn’t even have a clue where the school is! With everything else in her life a messed-up jumble, imagine her surprise when Emma learns that she is going to a Freke family reunion by herself—in, of all places, Wisconsin! She never met her own dad, to say nothing of his relatives! The rest of the Freke clan looks a lot like Emma. She is also amazed and glad to hear that Freke is pronounced like Becky, not freak! The reunion is run with military-like schedules, and it doesn’t take long before Emma begins to appreciate her more unstructured life at home. And when the rest of the Frekes taunt the “odd-looking, eccentric” cousin Fred, Emma begins to come to terms with not fitting in. It’s a life-changing weekend!
about the author
Elizabeth Atkinson claims to be one of the lamest people in the country. She’s a frustrated computer user; she can rarely reach anyone on her smart phone; she can’t speak “text”; she hyper-ventilates on Skype; both her Kindle and iPod froze a year ago; she is bewildered by copying machines; and she needs someone under 30 to operate her DVD! But she is very good at writing books for middle graders! As a youngster, she was always the shortest in school, a bit plump, and very shy. She blushed easily which gave her classmates something to tease her about. Luckily, she outgrew her superficial worries and was able to turn her attention to more important things—like writing about other teens who worried a lot! Elizabeth was raised in the village of Harvard in Massachusetts. She earned a BA from Hobart & William Smith Colleges and completed her master’s at Dartmouth. After graduating, she taught English literature and was a children’s librarian, copy editor, editorial assistant, newspaper columnist, co-executive director of a local arts foundation, and executive director of a pen-pal organization for teens. Elizabeth and her husband Eric, their two children Madeleine and Nathaniel, and their chocolate labradoodle, Obadiah, split their time between the north shore of Massachusetts and their cottage in the western mountains of Maine. A fidgety, munchy morning writer, Elizabeth does her best work in her cozy loft in Maine. Sources: Author website Author biography : Water Street Bookstore Author interview : Brush Up on Your Reading Also by Elizabeth Atkinson: From Alice to Zen and Everyone In Between. Carolrhoda. 2008.
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