Most Popular Books by Louise Hawes

Hitch a ride with 11-year-old Hazmat and her dad in their 18-wheeler, Leonardo, for a feel-good road trip across America that keeps on trucking! Life on the road with Daddy is as good as gets for Hazmat. Together, they''ve been taking jobs and crisscrossing the US for years. Now Daddy''s talking about putting down roots—somewhere Hazmat can go to a real school and make friends. Somewhere Daddy doesn''t have to mail-order textbooks about "nature''s promise to all women." Somewhere Mom''s ashes can rest on a mantel and not on a dashboard. While everything just keeps changing, sometimes in ways she can''t control, Hazmat isn''t ready to give up the freedom of long-distance hauling. Sure the road is filled with surprises, from plane crashes and robo trucks to runaway hitchhikers and abandoned babies, but that all makes for great stories! So Hazmat hatches a plan to make sure Daddy''s dream never becomes a reality. Because there''s only one place Hazmat belongs: in the navigator''s seat, right next to Daddy, with the whole country flying by and each day different from the last. Award-winning author Louise Hawes writes with an easy, conversational voice and an "I''ll never grow up" spirit that cheerfully thumbs its nose at traditional coming-of-age narratives. This heart-tugging, laugh-out-loud portrait of a father and daughter is a satisfying journey across modern America you won''t want to miss.

Sarah is forced to take a summer poetry class as penance for trashing the home of a famous poet in this fresh novel about finding your own voice. Sarah’s had her happy ending: she’s at the party of the year with the most popular boy in school. But when that boy turns out to be a troublemaker who decided to throw a party at a cottage museum dedicated to renowned poet Rufus Baylor, everything changes. By the end of the party, the whole cottage is trashed—curtains up in flames, walls damaged, mementos smashed—and when the partygoers are caught, they’re all sentenced to take a summer class studying Rufus Baylor’s poetry…with Baylor as their teacher. For Sarah, Baylor is a revelation. Unlike her mother, who is obsessed with keeping up appearances, and her estranged father, for whom she can’t do anything right, Rufus Baylor listens to what she has to say, and appreciates her ear for language. Through his classes, Sarah starts to see her relationships and the world in a new light—and finds that maybe her happy ending is really only part of a much more interesting beginning. The Language of Stars is a gorgeous celebration of poetry, language, and love from celebrated author Louise Hawes.

“ . . . and they lived happily ever after.” Remember the fairy tales you put away after you found that no princess is as beautiful as common sense and happy endings are just the beginning? Well, the old tales are back, and they’ve grown up! Black Pearls brings you the stories of your childhood, told in a way you’ve never heard before. Instead of lulling you to sleep, they’ll wake you up—to the haunting sadness that waits just inside the windows of a gingerbread cottage, the passion that fuels a witch’s flight, and the heartache that comes, again and again, at the stroke of midnight. Make no mistake: these stories are as dark as human nature itself. But they shine, too, lit with the fire of our dreams and our hunger for magic.

In Anteaters Don''t Dream and Other Stories, Louise Hawes deftly portrays lovers at the end of their patience, marriages on the verge of decline, children reeling from abuse, and parents devastated by loss. But many of these stories have a sardonic, humorous edge as well: in the title story, a jaded architect learns to take his dream life more seriously when a female co-worker threatens his career. In "Mr. Mix Up," a mother becomes infatuated with the clown at her son''s birthday party. In "My Last Indian," a menopausal woman goes native. And in "Salinger''s Mistress," a young woman lies about having an affair with J. D. Salinger. . . until Salinger himself calls her on the phone! Whether Hawes''s protagonists are rich or poor, male or female, young or old, their voices are convincing, varied, and human. With equal portions of wit and pathos, Anteaters Don''t Dream and Other Stories is a versatile collection by a remarkable prose stylist. Louise Hawes is a writer and teacher based in Pittsboro, North Carolina. She is the author of The Vanishing Point, Rosey in the Present Tense, and other novels.

Unable to accept the sudden death of his Japanese American girlfriend Rosey, seventeen-year-old Franklin finds that she has come back to him as a spirit and eventually realizes that he must let her go.

Shortly after moving with her mother to Florida, a lonely, fourteen-year-old bibliophile is reminded of her infant brother who died and decides to care for an abused, abandoned child with help from a new friend.

For Nelson Malone, nothing is impossible!

Presents the story of a young girl of Bologna who worked in her father''s all-male painting studio and came to enjoy more fame than any female artist before her.

An Egyptian girl places the value of her own family over the Pharaoh''s advances and promises of wealth in this picture book. Full color.

Discusses the private and professional life of the twentieth-century American painter who was part of the Abstract Expressionism movement of art.

Fifth grader Nelson Malone borrows a giant talking snake from his neighborhood witch, converts his sister''s doll to a homework machine, and becomes embroiled in other comic misadventures.