{"product_id":"pieces-of-georgia-isbn-9780440420552","title":"Pieces of Georgia","description":"Like her mother, Georgia McCoy is an artist, but her dad looks away whenever he sees her with a sketchbook. Sometimes it’s hard to remember what it was like when her mother was still alive . . . when they were a family . . . when they were happy. But then a few days after her 13th birthday, Georgia receives an unexpected gift–a strange, formal letter, all typed up and signed anonymous–granting her free admission to the Brandywine River Museum for a whole year. And things begin to change.\u003cbr\u003eAn accessible novel in poems, \u003ci\u003ePieces of Georgia\u003c\/i\u003e offers an endearing protagonist–an aspiring artist, a grieving daughter, a struggling student, a genuine friend–and the poignant story of a broken family coming together.\"Through Georgia's artwork, noticing details others miss, learning about painters like O'Keeffe and Wyeth, and reaching out to others, the fragmented pieces of this steely, gentle heroine become an integrated whole.\u003ci\u003e\" - Publishers Weekly, \u003c\/i\u003eStarredJen Bryant teaches Children's Literature at West Chester University. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and daughter. She is currently at work on her next novel, which will be published by Knopf in 2008.Mrs. Yocum called me\u003cbr\u003edown to her office today. She's the counselor at school who I\u003cbr\u003ehave to go to once a week 'cause I'm on\u003cbr\u003esome \"At Risk\" list that I saw once on the secretary's desk.\u003cbr\u003e(Ronnie Kline, Marianne Ferlinghetti, Sam Katzenbach,\u003cbr\u003eDanita Brown--and some others I forget--are on it, too.)\u003cbr\u003eMost of them have substance abuse next to their names,\u003cbr\u003ebut I have financial\/single parent--father\/possible medical?\u003cbr\u003enext to mine.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnyway, when Mrs. Yocum called me in, I sat\u003cbr\u003ein her big green chair, and she sat\u003cbr\u003eacross from me in her big blue chair--\u003cbr\u003eblinking at me like a mother owl through her oversize glasses--\u003cbr\u003eand it all started off as it usually does,\u003cbr\u003ewith her asking me about my stomachaches\u003cbr\u003eand if I had raised my hand more often in class\u003cbr\u003eand if there was anything particular on my mind I thought\u003cbr\u003eI needed to talk about.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThen all of a sudden she asked me if I\u003cbr\u003emiss you. She never\u003cbr\u003easked me that before, and I couldn't make the words\u003cbr\u003ecome out of my mouth, they seemed to be\u003cbr\u003estuck in my throat, or maybe they were just tangled up\u003cbr\u003ewith the rabbit I seemed to have swallowed\u003cbr\u003ethat started kicking the sides of my stomach,\u003cbr\u003edesperate to get out.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI guess it must have been four or five minutes we sat there,\u003cbr\u003eher making notes in her folder\u003cbr\u003eand me with that rabbit\u003cbr\u003ethrashing around my insides and still no\u003cbr\u003ewords coming out.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI started to draw on the top of my binder,\u003cbr\u003elike it seems I always do\u003cbr\u003ewhen I don't know what else to do, so I\u003cbr\u003edidn't notice that she was trying to hand me\u003cbr\u003ea red leather notebook (this very one I'm writing in),\u003cbr\u003eand she said: \"Georgia, why don't we make\u003cbr\u003ea deal? I will excuse you\u003cbr\u003efrom coming to Guidance for a while, provided--\u003cbr\u003eyou promise to write down your thoughts and feelings\u003cbr\u003eat least a few times a week\u003cbr\u003ein this diary. You don't have to show it to me, or to anybody,\u003cbr\u003eunless you want to,\u003cbr\u003eand it might be a good idea if you tried--sometimes, or\u003cbr\u003eall the time if you want--\u003cbr\u003eto write down what you might tell, or what you might ask,\u003cbr\u003eyour mother\u003cbr\u003eif she were here.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSo, Momma, that's how I've come to start\u003cbr\u003ewriting to you in this pretty red leather diary\u003cbr\u003ethat I keep in the drawer of my nightstand.\u003cbr\u003eBut I'm not sure what I'm going to tell you, 'cause my life\u003cbr\u003eis not all that interesting, but anyway\u003cbr\u003eit will fill\u003cbr\u003ea few minutes after school\u003cbr\u003eor maybe that half hour or so\u003cbr\u003eafter dinner, after homework, after doing the dishes,\u003cbr\u003ewhen I'm stretched out in the back of our trailer and Daddy\u003cbr\u003eis trying to keep the TV down so I can fall asleep\u003cbr\u003ebut loud enough so he can still watch\u003cbr\u003ewhatever game is on\u003cbr\u003eand I'm trying to remember what it was like six years ago\u003cbr\u003ewhen we were a family\u003cbr\u003eand Daddy was happy\u003cbr\u003eand you were here.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e2.\u003cbr\u003eToday I turned thirteen.\u003cbr\u003eAs usual for mid-February, it snowed a little bit, then the\u003cbr\u003esun came out like a tease, 'cause it never got above\u003cbr\u003ethirty-two degrees.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs usual, it was just me and Daddy having my birthday dinner\u003cbr\u003eat the fold-down table in the kitchen.\u003cbr\u003eI said I could make chicken, baked potatoes, and peas,\u003cbr\u003ebut he brought home a pizza after work\u003cbr\u003e(with anchovies and green peppers)\u003cbr\u003eand we ate it right out of the box so it'd stay hot,\u003cbr\u003e'cause it wouldn't fit inside our oven.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThen Daddy carried in a cake\u003cbr\u003ehe'd been hiding in the closet, but when he\u003cbr\u003euncovered it, he got mad\u003cbr\u003ebecause a heat vent was right next to it\u003cbr\u003eand the icing around the edges melted\u003cbr\u003eand the \"Happy Birthday\" ran all\u003cbr\u003eover the middle until it looked like\u003cbr\u003ea big pink puddle.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut I didn't mind. Last year\u003cbr\u003ehe forgot my birthday altogether until\u003cbr\u003ehe saw the mail and the annual\u003cbr\u003e$20 bill from Great-Uncle Doug in Atlanta.\u003cbr\u003eThe cake was good--chocolate with chocolate icing.\u003cbr\u003eI had seconds and Daddy did, too, and I know\u003cbr\u003eyou would've joined us.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAfterward, I went through the mail and I\u003cbr\u003egot a card and the $20 bill from Great-Uncle Doug.\u003cbr\u003eThe card had a clown and balloons and was really made\u003cbr\u003efor a little kid, but still,\u003cbr\u003eit was nice of him to remember.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDaddy gave me those jeans I'd seen in the Army Navy Store,\u003cbr\u003ea new pair of shoes,\u003cbr\u003eand a \"blank inside\" card like he always does,\u003cbr\u003eone with a flower on the front, same as always,\u003cbr\u003eand his big, slanted lettering inside:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGeorgia--\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHappy Birthday.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDaddy\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCan I tell you something, Momma?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEvery year since you died, I've been waiting for him\u003cbr\u003eto write Love, Daddy inside,\u003cbr\u003ebut after all this time\u003cbr\u003eI think I should wake up and stop\u003cbr\u003emy dreaming.","brand":"Yearling","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46301940580581,"sku":"NP9780440420552","price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780440420552_5972e6d3-6e74-4db7-93b8-9bdb1177a97f.jpg?v=1767734778","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/pieces-of-georgia-isbn-9780440420552","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}