about the book
My name is Grace Louise Dawson but everyone calls me Weezie. I live in Oklahoma in a real small town, it is the 1980s, and I am ten years old. One more thing you should know about me. I I am bad. Momma tells me so all the time.
I try to do good and make her happy. I watch after my little stepsister Ruth Ann and little stepbrother Jackson. I wash the dishes and try to keep the trailer picked up. Before momma comes home tired from waitressing all the time at Pancake Heaven, I fetch her slippers, fluff up the pillow on her favorite chair, and even make her some tea. That’s when I broke Grandma Ermmeline’s teapot, about the only thing my momma had left from her mom. Though I didn’t do it on purpose, momma gets real mad. She gets real mad at me most times now.
My dad up and left before I was born. Grandma Emmeline died of a heart attack. Tommy, momma’s second husband and Ruth Ann’s papa, is dead, too. Jackson’s papa, Roy, ain’t got no job, so mamma’s got to work real hard to take care of all of us. Seems like she’s always flat broke and I’m the blame for her troubles. She never smiles no more…
I guess I understand why. I tell whoppers. I mostly lie to classmates and teachers. I don’t want them to know about my daddy, or how my momma has to work, or about our rundown trailer. None of that stuff. I get into a lot of trouble, but the truth is worse…
I got this old photo of my daddy. With momma not talking about him at all, I gotta’ investigate on my own why he disappeared. My friend Calvin can take me around on his bike. Louella, my new friend at school, said she would help, too. If I could find him and convince him to help momma, maybe she would be happy…maybe she would love me again.
about the author
Growing up in small town Rutherford, New Jersey, little Jean Van Leeuwen was a tomboy and a bookworm. When she didn’t have her nose buried in a book, she was climbing trees and playing baseball with the guys. She read everything she could get her hands on, and by the time she was in sixth grade, she had read just about all the books in the children’s room of their little town’s library. That was when she decided to write her own book about a horse. Unfortunately she had never even ridden a horse and had run out of ideas by the third chapter. Jean decided being an author was just too hard!
She studied journalism at Syracuse University and moved to New York City to work in the children’s book department of a big publisher. After reading all sorts manuscripts, she decided to try writing again. This time she wrote about something she really knew about. Jean’s first book, Timothy’s Flower, was followed by FIFTY more books!
Jean writes about all sorts of things: historical fiction, fantasy, and real life. And she writes for all different age groups. Many of her award-winning books were inspired by her own two children, David and Elizabeth, especially the easy-to-read series about Oliver and Amanda Pig. Amanda Pig and the Really Hot Day was a 2006 Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor Book.
Jean currently lives in an old house in Chappaqua, New York. She teaches a writer’s workshop for adults and volunteers in a first-grade classroom where she helps children with their writing. In her spare time, she plays tennis, works in her garden, and listens to music…and reads. She is still a bookworm!
Sources:
Author website
Author biography: Amazon
Also by Jean van Leeuwen:
Cabin on Trouble Creek. Dial. 2004.
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