Sharon Creech

After her mother leaves home suddenly, thirteen-year-old Sal and her grandparents take a car trip retracing her mother's route. Along the way, Sal recounts the story of her friend Phoebe, whose mother also left.

A young student, who comes to love poetry through a personal understanding of what different famous poems mean to him, surprises himself by writing his own inspired poem.

Imaginative, eleven-year-old Gina, her mysterious new neighbor, Antonio, and their classmates are inspired by an unusual young teacher to see who they are and envision who they are meant to become.

Mr. Keene runs a fine, fine school. He encourages his students to express themselves through the creative arts: drawing, painting, reading, and singing. Then Mr. Keene's appendix bursts, and he's rushed to the hospital. A new principal named Mr. Tatters arrives to take his place, and he is a serious man. He does not smile, he does not laugh, [he] disapproves of their creative methods of learning, and [he] immediately implements a policy of daily tests,...