Search results for ""author judith clarke""

This wholly satisfying Michael L. Printz Honor Book is told from multiple points of view. Lily Samson both loves and is embarrassed by her eccentric family. Her grandmother has an invisible friend; her grandfather is a racist (she believes); her mother brings elderly clients home from work for dinner; and her older brother keeps dropping in and out of school. Lily wishes her family could be "normal" for just one day. Then serendipity strikes. Through a series of surprising encounters, Lily's family members all reach new understanding about themselves and make changes for the better—and Lily gets her dream of one whole and perfect day.

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'Frankie believed in Heaven quite literally, as if it was another lovely world out past the stars. And when he spoke the word "love", it seemed to spring free and fly into the air like a beautiful balloon you wanted to run after. But I couldn't tell my parents about Frankie, not properly. I told them I'd made friends with the boy in the room next to mine, and how he'd come from this little town out west. I couldn't tell them how he was becoming the best thing in my world. I couldn't tell anyone, I hardly admitted it to myself.' In the 1950s, 'entering' the seminary was for ever, and young boys were gathered into the priesthood before they were old enough to know what they would lose. Tom went to St Finbar's because he was looking for something more than the ordinary happiness of his home and school. But then he discovered that being able to love another person was the most important thing of all. For Tom, loving Frankie made him part of the world. Even when Frankie was gone...

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