{"product_id":"the-collected-works-of-gretchen-oyster-isbn-9780735266230","title":"The Collected Works of Gretchen Oyster","description":"\u003cb\u003eWho is Gretchen Oyster? The discovery of a series of mysterious handmade postcards distracts Hartley from trouble at home. A poignant novel for fans of Rebecca Stead and Holly Goldberg Sloan.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHartley Staples, near-graduate of middle school, is grappling with the fact that his older brother has run away from home, when he finds a handmade postcard that fascinates him. And soon he spots another. Despite his losing interest in pretty much everything since Jackson ran away, Hartley finds himself searching for cards in his small town at every opportunity, ignoring other responsibilities, namely choosing a topic for his final project. Who is G.O. and why are they scattering cards about the town?\u003cb\u003eOne of the New York Public Library's \u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003eBest Books for Kids 2019\u003cbr\u003eOne of \u003ci\u003eQuill And Quire’s\u003c\/i\u003e 2019 Books of the Year for Young People\u003cbr\u003eOne of the \u003ci\u003eGlobe and Mail\u003c\/i\u003e’s 100 Books that Shaped 2019 \u003cbr\u003eHonorable mention for the Ontario Library Association’s 2019 Top Ten Titles\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePRAISE FOR The Collected Works of Gretchen Oyster\u003ci\u003e:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[A] funny, beautifully illustrated coming-of-age novel that will leave young readers thinking about where art begins and what it can do to change lives.” --\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eCM Magazine\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\"A charmingly eccentric tale of briefly intersecting lives making meaning from art.\" --\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e“Filled with beautiful art and poignant prose, Cary Fagan’s latest middle grade novel is funny and touching in equal measure.” \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e--BookPage\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e“The Collected Works of Gretchen Oyster is a delightfully quirky novel about facing our personal darkness.” \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e--Resource Links\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Fagan . . . tells a moving story about the happiness found in small moments and art’s power to connect people.” \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e--Publishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eCARY FAGAN\u003c\/b\u003e's numerous kids' books include \u003ci\u003eMort Ziff Is Not Dead\u003c\/i\u003e, the Kaspar Snit novels, the Wolfie \u0026amp; Fly chapter books and the picture books \u003ci\u003eLittle Blue Chair \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eWhat Are You Doing, Benny?\u003c\/i\u003e, illustrated by Kady MacDonald Denton. \u003ci\u003eMr. Zinger's Hat\u003c\/i\u003e, another of his picture books, was awarded the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award and the IODE Jean Throop Award. He also won the Vicky Metcalf Award for Literature for Young People for his body of work. In addition to his books for children, Cary is the author of six novels and three story collections for adults. He was born and raised in Toronto, where he continues to live with his family.My teacher Ms. Gorham once said that a story should have an exciting opening. Like this—\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eWe stood and watched as the entire laboratory went up in flames.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e Or maybe—\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eIf there was one thing I couldn’t do, it was sit idly by while a bunch of giant insects tried to eat their way across the planet.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Unfortunately, this is not that kind of opening.\u003cbr\u003e I went to the library.\u003cbr\u003e I went because it was Saturday and nobody was paying me the slightest attention. Not my mother or my father or my older sister or even my little brother for that matter. And certainly not my older brother, Jackson.\u003cbr\u003e That last sentence was sort of a trick. Because Jackson had run away from home. Nine months ago now. I had thought about not revealing this fact for a while, sort of keeping it up my sleeve to reveal in a more dramatic way—\u003ci\u003etada!\u003c\/i\u003e—but I hate when stories do that. Nope, my brother ran away and we didn’t have the slightest idea where he was.\u003cbr\u003e This should tell you a lot about why everyone was paying me no attention.\u003cbr\u003e Now, back to the library.\u003cbr\u003e Oh, wait. Before I tell you what happened in the library, I better introduce myself.\u003cbr\u003e A lot of stories have a main character with a really memorable name. Like Scout. Or Katniss Everdeen. Or Matilda Wormwood. Me, not so much. I’m Hartley. Hartley Joshua Staples. And no, my family doesn’t own the chain of Staples office supply stores. We aren’t rich. We’re middle-class. Or as my dad likes to say, we’re solidly middle-class. I’m not sure why he thinks that sounds better.\u003cbr\u003e You probably expect me to tell you all kinds of stuff about myself: what kind of music I stream, or problems I’m having at school, or maybe that I like some girl with long hair who sits in front of me in math class.\u003cbr\u003e Can we be mature, people? \u003cbr\u003e Now back to the library. \u003cbr\u003e The Whirton Public Library is the size of a mobile home. That’s because it was a mobile home, once upon a time. The original library was in the basement of the town hall, but then the basement got flooded in what I like to call the Great Downpour of 2017, and all the books got ruined, and the town decided that maybe the basement wasn’t the best place for it.\u003cbr\u003e The problem was that the town had no money to build a proper library out of actual bricks. This is where George Smythe comes in.\u003cbr\u003e You might think that, at this advanced stage of human evolution, we would have done away with the town eccentric. Not so. In fact, our town has more than its share. George Smythe is a retired mail carrier turned inventor. He believed that it was possible for anybody to build a rocket ship that was better and cheaper than anything the Americans, Russians, or Chinese could make. So George sold off everything he owned, including his house, in order to buy parts for his rocket ship. He moved into an old mobile home on a vacant lot.","brand":"Tundra Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46304982008037,"sku":"NP9780735266230","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780735266230.jpg?v=1767738741","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/the-collected-works-of-gretchen-oyster-isbn-9780735266230","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}