Synopsis
The new girl in town meets a mysterious old-fashioned girl who can't seem to find her way home.
The girl didn't say anything. Her face held no expression.
Ariadne shivered. It was cool in the shade, and her hair was still wet.
"Hello," Ariadne said. No answer. "Um--I was just taking a walk. Is this your property?" Still nothing. She took a step toward the girl and stumbled on a fallen branch. She caught her balance and looked back at the tree, but no one was there.
The girl had vanished.
It's bad enough that Ariadne's family just moved to a tiny boring town in the middle of nowhere. But worst of all is that she's so far away from her best friend. The kids in Dobbin seem nice enough, but none of them really understands how lost and unhappy Ariadne feels.
None, that is, but May Butler. She's an odd, quiet person who wears the strangest old-fashioned clothes and has a spooky habit of appearing and disappearing in the blink of an eye. Despite their differences, there is a bond between the two girls. May, too, knows what it's like to feel lost.
Cold in Summer is a 2004 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.
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About Tracy Barrett
T
Tracy Barrett
Born 1955
Tracy Barrett is the author of numerous fiction and nonfiction books for young readers, including the award-winning YA biographical novel, Anna of Byzantium (Delacorte, 1999). Her most recent publications are The 100-Year-Old Secret (Book 1 of “The Sherlock Files,” Henry Holt Books for Young Readers, 2008), The Ancient Chinese World (Oxford University Press, 2005) and On Etruscan Time (Henry Holt Books for Young Readers, 2005). Under contract with Holt are three more novels in “The Sherlock Files” and a young-adult novel with the working title King of Ithaka. Some of her past publications include: Growing Up in Colonial America (The Millbrook Press, 1995); Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky, in the series Celebrate the States (Benchmark Books, Marshall Cavendish, 1997-1999); The Trail of Tears: An American Tragedy (Perfection Learning Corporation, 2000); “The Children’s Crusade” (AppleSeeds Magazine, December 2001); and Cold in Summer (Henry Holt Books for Young Readers, 2003). Tracy is Regional Advisor for the Midsouth chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) and was awarded the SCBWI Work-in-Progress Grant in 2005. She holds a B.A. from Brown University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley. She is married and has two young-adult children. She lives in Nashville, TN, where she teaches at Vanderbilt University. Visit her at www.tracybarrett.com.
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