New Releases by Harry Mazer

"Can I go home now?" After his bike gets stolen, twelve-year-old Sammy gets lost in the woods near his home. He stumbles upon the makeshift hideaway of the "wild kid" named Kevin, who has run away from reform school. Will this strongly independent tough let Sammy get home to his family? Can they both survive in the unforgiving wilderness?

In these three finely crafted novellas that chart the emotional ties that bind man and man’s best friend together, a brilliant dog changes places with his basketball playing master, a young man falls in love with a dog trainer, and a newspaper delivery boy tries desperately to find an appropriate final resting place for one of his customer’s beloved pets.

George feels as if he’s going through life with his eyes half closed—but sometimes that’s how you bump into the best surprises George has been in love with Julie since they were twelve years old. For six years, they’ve barely taken a step without each other, and and every time George imagines his future, he sees Julie in it. She’ll be a doctor and they’ll stay in their small town and always be able to see the bright lights of New York City across the Hudson River. The two of them are so close, they’re like two parts of the same person—only whole when they’re together. But when Julie suddenly calls off their relationship, everything George thought was certain starts to crumble away. In desperation, he starts exchanging online messages with a stranger, someone right across the river in the big city. On the Internet, George discovers, you can be anyone you want—or you can be exactly who you are, even if you’re still finding out just who that is.

When you’re alone, all you have to think about is yourself Willis Pierce knows she’s out there somewhere. He doesn’t know when she’ll appear, but he knows that when he meets the girl of his dreams, they’ll recognize each other from the look in their eyes. In the meantime, Willis eats frozen pizza in his empty apartment and runs at a nearby track late at night, training for an imaginary race. Sophie Browne can run a farm all by herself, but now she’s headed to the city to find out what else she can do. Cheerful and resourceful, Sophie rents a little apartment and gets a job in the neighborhood. It’s a start, but Sophie’s real dream is to get her pilot’s license. She knows from her flying lessons that she loves being high over the earth, light and free. Two young people, both used to being alone but tired of feeling lonely, find out whether they can learn to be together in this story about the benefits—and drawbacks—of independence.

Jeff’s life would be so much better if he were the one directing it Close-up: Mary running toward him with tears in her eyes. “Oh, my darling, I couldn’t wait to get back.” Cut to long shot: Jeff puts his arms around her. They kiss. Fade out. Jeff already sees everything as a scene in a movie, planning the camera angles and imagining people reading the lines he’ll write for them. As soon as he saves up enough money to move to California, he’s going to quit his dishwashing job, and then . . . look out for Director Orloff! Unfortunately, Mary Silver doesn’t seem to have read the script. When they were in high school drama club together, she never noticed Jeff, and now that she’s back in town, a new player has entered the scene: Mary’s infant daughter, Hannah. Being a mom is a full-time job, but Jeff knows that Mary was born to be an actress—he’s seen her come alive on stage, transforming into her character from the inside out. Her kind of talent is in a class by itself. If only Mary could see herself as Jeff sees her—beautiful and talented . . . and utterly in love with him. Will their romance always be just in his head? Or can he win Mary’s heart another way—by figuring out what it means to be a friend to her, and to Hannah?

Can Marcus be friends with a girl without thinking about sex all the time? Marcus Rosenbloom wants to be a writer almost as much as he doesn’t want to be a virgin anymore. At seventeen years old, Marcus thinks, shouldn’t he have done it already? Crossed over to the other side, where everyone is different, more adult, more . . . experienced? His friend Alec is smooth and charming around girls; Marcus definitely can’t talk to him about his doubts. The only person he confides in is Wendy, a childhood friend who just moved back to Sherwood High to finish her senior year. Marcus and Wendy share their crushes, their disappointments, and their nervousness about dating and sex. Then Marcus has an idea: If he and Wendy share the same problem, maybe they can share a solution, too . . . or maybe it’s all much more complicated than he ever imagined.

Nobody said New York City was easy, but for Tolley Holtz, it’s home Tolley Holtz would rather be exploring the city with his friends, talking about the Yankees, and discussing what President Roosevelt is going to do about the Depression than watching his little brother, Bubber. With his mother working all day in a garment factory and his father looking for work in Baltimore, Tolley’s family depends on him. But suddenly, things go from hard to unthinkable. When his mother gets pneumonia and can’t leave the hospital, Tolley becomes the only family Bubber can rely on. Afraid that the children’s shelter will split them up, the two brothers hop a crosstown bus and strike out on their own, up and down fire escapes, across rooftops, and into the cellars and shadows of New York City. Tolley will need all the street smarts he’s ever learned to get them through the winter—and to hold on to his dreams of having a family again.

Wounded in Iraq while his Army unit is on convoy and treated for many months for traumatic brain injury, the first person Ben remembers from his earlier life is his autistic brother.

They rowed hard, away from the battleships and the bombs. Water sprayed over them. The rowboat pitched one way and then the other. Then, before his eyes, the Arizona lifted up out of the water. That enormous battleship bounced up in the air like a rubber ball and split apart. Fire burst out of the ship. A geyser of water shot into the air and came crashing down. Adam was almost thrown out of the rowboat. He clung to the seat as it swung around. He saw blue skies and the glittering city. The boat swung back again, and he saw black clouds, and the Arizona, his father''s ship, sinking beneath the water. -- from A Boy at War "He kept looking up, afraid the planes would come back. The sky was obscured by black smoke....It was all unreal: the battleships half sunk, the bullet holes in the boat, Davi and Martin in the water." December 7, 1941: On a quiet Sunday morning, while Adam and his friends are fishing near Honolulu, a surprise attack by Japanese bombers destroys the fleet at Pearl Harbor. Even as Adam struggles to survive the sudden chaos all around him, and as his friends endure the brunt of the attack, a greater concern hangs over his head: Adam''s father, a navy lieutenant, was stationed on the USS Arizona when the bombs fell. During the subsequent days Adam -- not yet a man, but no longer a boy -- is caught up in the war as he desperately tries to make sense of what happened to his friends and to find news of his father. Harry Mazer, whose autobiographical novel, The Last Mission, brought the European side of World War II to vivid life, now turns to the Pacific theater and how the impact of war can alter young lives forever.

This short story was written thirty-eight years ago by the prize-winning novelist for young readers, Harry Mazer, and first published in 2008 by Worthy Shorts.

Virtually nothing is known about Sarah Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln''s older sister. This novel follows the few known facts of the Lincoln family''s early life, starting with the Lincolns'' move from Kentucky to Indiana when Sarah was nine through their years living in a log cabin, the death of Sarah and Abe''s mother when Sarah was eleven and Sarah''s new responsibilities as woman of the cabin, culminate with the arrival of a stepmother a year later. The details of Sarah''s character have been invented, but this novel provides real insight into Abraham Lincoln''s childhood, as well as the role of women on the frontier.

"I WANTED TO SERVE, TO BE PART OF THIS THING MY FATHER HAD GIVEN HIS LIFE FOR. I DIDN''T WANT THE WAR TO END, AND ALL I''D BE ABLE TO SAY WAS, NO I DIDN''T SERVE, I WAS RIGHT HERE THE WHOLE WAR, SAFE IN BAKERSFIELD." Adam Pelko witnessed the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that killed his father, a lieutenant on the USS Arizona. Even though Adam is underage, he defies his mother''s wishes and enlists in the Marines. Sent first to boot camp, then to Okinawa, he experiences the stark reality of war firsthand -- the camaraderie and the glory as well as the grueling regimen, the paralyzing fear, and death. And at every turn, Adam must confront memories of his father. In the concluding volume of his World War II trilogy, Harry Mazer masterfully illustrates Adam''s journey as he navigates brutal circumstances that no boy should know.

In 1944, as World War II is raging across Europe, fifteen-year-old Jack Raab dreams of being a hero. Leaving New York City, his family, and his boyhood behind, Jack uses a false I.D. and lies his way into the U.S. Air Force. From their base in England, he and his crew fly twenty-four treacherous bombing missions over occupied Europe. The war is almost over and Hitler near defeat when they fly their last mission -- a mission destined for disaster. Shot down far behind enemy lines, Jack is taken prisoner and sent to a German POW camp, where his experiences are more terrifying than anything he''d ever imagined.

At fifteen, Tony Laporte is what many people would call a throughly spoiled kid. He gets away with a lot because his parents want him to have all the things they never had. But when they surprise him by refusing to let him keep a stray dog he has found, Tony decides to teach them a lesson by running off in his mother''s old Plymouth. Driving without a license in the middle of a severe snowstorm, he picks up a hitchhiker named Cindy Reichert, an aloof girl who has always had difficulty forming friendships. To impress Cindy, Tony tries to show off his driving skills and ends up wrecking the car in a very desolated area far from the main highway. After spending precious days bickering with each other and waiting for rescue that never comes, they finally realize that their lives are at stake and they must cooperate to survive. The question is--can they survive?

After his father is killed in the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Adam moves with his family from Hawaii to California and begins to doubt his relationship with his Japanese-American best friend, Davi Mori, but when Davi calls upon Adam to complete an important task involving his own father at an internment camp, Adam has to come to terms with his feelings and make the right decision for the sake of a friend.

7 décembre 1941. Un dimanche matin paisible dans l''île d''Oahu, à Hawaii. Adam est parti pêcher en mer avec des amis quand, soudain, le ciel s''obscurcit. Des avions de chasse japonais mitraillent le port de Pearl Harbor ! Adam assiste, impuissant, au naufrage du navire de son père, militaire. Sous une pluie de bombes, il va partir à sa recherche et découvrir brutalement les horreurs de la guerre...

In a dozen riveting new works of short fiction, written especially for this collection, popular contemporary authors explore the emotion-driven world of guns. From the grim reality of urban violence (in "Chalkman" by Rita Williams-Garcia) to a boy''s first glimpse of manhood while target-shooting with Dad (in Ron Koertge''s "Fresh Meat") to mercy killing (in Rob Thomas''s "The War Chest"), the 12 stories included here are as different as the 12 authors themselves.

Landing a prestigious summer internship on a Pulitzer Prizewinning newspaper seems ideal for Chris, who''s glad to be taken seriously as a writer and to get away from his blue-collar father''s expectations. For Vicki, it''s a chance to grow up, shine in the big time, and maybe even get a scholarship so she won''t end up stuck in a dead-end job like her mother. For Elizabeth, it means time to distance herself from the suffocating relationship she has with her boyfriend. For Faith, it''s a way to forget the past and try to be just a normal teenager. Weeks of work and play wear on their relationships: What do they expect of each other? What do they expect of themselves?

Eddie Leonard has no idea who his parents are. The woman Eddie calls his grandmother sometimes tells him that her daughter, his mother, abandoned him at birth. At other times Eddie''s grandmother tells him that he was found in a garbage can ... or maybe on a park bench. When Eddie''s grandmother dies suddenly, he wonders if he ever really was related to her -- where did he come from and who are his parents? That''s when Eddie launches his daring plan: he''ll find his real family and claim his rightful place.

Sam''s world turns upside down when his wealthy uncle dies and his emotionally fragile aunt walks out on his cousin. Suddenly cousins Lisa and Robyn must leave their comfortable house and move in with Sam''s family. Sam''s house is small and chaotic, and his mother is tough as nails. To make matter worse, Sam is attracted to the coolly beautiful Lisa, but she thinks he''s a jerk. Confronted with the common goal of finding Lisa''s mother, both Sam and Lisa are forced to face reality. Sam must accept that his mother will always lack finesse, and Lisa relizes her mother isn''t as strong as she wants her to be. What else will Sam and Lisa discover as they pull together to search for Lisa''s missing mother?

When a high school senior falls in love with the girl he is supposed to be fixing up with his best friend, the ensuing experiences profoundly change the relationships each has with the others.

After hearing that his parents have been killed in a plane crash, Billy tries to keep his family together.

Tired of being fat, rich, and miserable, Cleo Murphy runs away, desperate to prove herself. Her destination is a deserted island her father owns in Canada. She is determined to stay and survive, through her supplies are scanty and she knows nothing about living out of doors. As the summer months pass, Cleo does fend for herself, and finally she feels ready to face her family on the mainland. But by a cruel twist of fate her canoe is destroyed, and instead she must prove herself again and face the brutal Canadian winter.