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Tracie’s first teaching assignment was special education. She taught high school students with autism and middle school children with developmental and learning disabilities. She holds a master’s degree in reading education and is the author of a book of poetry, Sketches from a Spy Tree (Clarion). She loves living in Waxhaw, North Carolina, with her family but will always consider Ohio her home. |
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The Floating Circus Twelve-year-old Owen forgoes an orphan train that’s headed west only to find himself falling in with a completely unexpected group of misfits—circus performers on the River Palace. As this floating circus makes its way down the Mississippi, Owen slowly discovers that his fellow workers aren’t freaks, but loners, like he is. A brush with yellow-fever in New Orleans and a devastating storm threaten the boat and its passengers. But it’s the menace of slave catchers that poses the greatest danger of all, and will put Owen’s loyalty to a freed black man to the test. |
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42 Miles JoEllen's parents divorced when she was very young, so she was used to splitting her time between them, shuttling four blocks from one Cincinnati apartment to another. But when her dad moved to the old family farm last year, her life was suddenly divided. Now on weekdays she's a city girl, called Ellen, who hangs out with her friends, plays the sax, and loves old movies. And on weekends she's a country girl, nicknamed Joey, who rides horseback with her cousin, Hayden, goes fishing, and listens to bluegrass. So where do her loyalties lie? Who is the real JoEllen? Linked free-verse poems, illustrated with a quirky array of found objects and mementos, create the vivid, realistic portrait of a young girl at a defining moment in her life. |
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Reaching for Sun Josie Wyatt knows what it means to be different. Her family’s small farmhouse seems to shrink each time another mansion grows up behind it. She lives with her career-obsessed mom and opinionated Gran, but has never known her father. Then there’s her cerebral palsy: even if Josie wants to forget that she was born with a disability, her mom can’t seem to let it go. Yet when a strange new boy—Jordan—moves into one of the houses nearby, he seems oblivious to all the things that make Josie different. Before long, Josie finds herself reaching out for something she’s never really known: a friend ... and possibly more. Interlinked free verse poems tell the beautiful, heartfelt story of a girl, a family farm reduced to a garden, and a year of unforgettable growth. Awards |
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Sketches from a Spy Tree In a series of remarkably candid poems, Anne Marie tells the story of her family's transition from disarray and grief to hope. In "Family Portrait," she digs out an old family photograph and angrily cut[s] Dad out/with five quick snips/crumple[s] his face/like an empty gum wrapper,/which is just what he deserves/for leaving/'my four girls'/two years ago today. The young narrator's poems reflect on her neighborhood, family, and friends, often from the security of her spy tree. There, she and her twin sister share a branch and sometimes different perspectives, particularly about their new stepfather: 'Maybe/you could take/a chance on Mike, too./He wasn't the one/who ditched us,/you know.' The writing is lyrical yet fresh, as in this description of the cat lady who feeds cats out of her spotted hands,/a quilt of cats/folded around her legs. Glass's remarkable watercolors, sketches, photographs, and collages bring Anne Marie's experiences to life. With each turn of the page, readers encounter delightfully energized illustrations that complement the subject and mood of each poem well. |
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