Best Selling Books by Paula Fox

Newbery Medal–winning author Paula Fox’s gripping and sensitive portrayal of a teenage girl who discovers her father is not the man she thought he was. Catherine Ames’s father, Harry, has always been a mystery. Her parents divorced when she was three, and she has spent most of her life in a Montreal boarding school. When Harry suggests a month-long stay with him at his summer cabin in Nova Scotia, Catherine is thrilled. Finally she’ll have the kind of relationship with her father that other girls at school have with theirs. But the bright summer quickly darkens. Harry drinks—a lot. The more Catherine witnesses his drinking, the more she begins to hate him. Only, Catherine can’t help but love him too. A travel writer with a poet’s tongue, Harry is clever and exciting, and tells wonderful stories—until he drinks again, and the playful father that takes her on picnics becomes someone dark and frightening. How can the man she grew up wishing to be close to seem so far away? And how can Catherine bring him back to her? A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, The Moonlight Man is a lyrical and emotional account of love, acceptance, and the difficult lessons of growing up.

A Newbery Honor Book and Winner of the Christopher Award: A young boy fires a forbidden rifle—and must face the consequences. Ned Wallis’s minister father made him promise not to touch the rifle until he turns fourteen. But the eleven-year-old can’t resist sneaking outside and trying it out, just once. Ned takes aim, and fires—just as a dark shadow passes in front of him. When he looks up, a flickering face passes across the attic window. Someone was watching. When a feral cat appears outside the house of an elderly neighbor, with dried blood on its matted fur and a missing eye, Ned begins to wonder: Could he have shot this animal that night? Full of guilt and terrified that his secret will come out, Ned starts caring for the one-eyed cat. But will he be able to come clean about his broken promise and the shot in the dark? Spring brings the chance for redemption and a surprising revelation from an unexpected source in this New York Times Outstanding Children’s Book of the Year.

First published in 1970 to great acclaim, this novel stands as one of the most dazzling and rigorous examples of the storyteller''s craft in postwar American literature--a novel that, according to Irving Howe, ranks with "Billy Budd" and "The Great Gatsby".

Eleven-year-old Clay must find a home on the streets of New York City in this award-winning, heartbreakingly honest novel. He was eleven years old, and he had never felt so alone in his life. Clay Garrity lived a normal life until his father lost his job and abandoned the family. Now his pregnant mother has deserted him too, leaving Clay alone in a welfare hotel with a jar of peanut butter and half a loaf of bread. Fearing being placed in foster care, Clay runs away. Alone in the city, Clay wanders down streets with boarded-up buildings and through dark alleys, until he comes to a small triangular park that looks like an island in a stream. In the light of a street lamp, he sees cardboard boxes, blankets, bundles—and people. Some are lying on benches, others inside boxes. Two of the men, Calvin and Buddy, offer to share their shelter, and Clay is grateful to have a place to stay during the bitter November cold. Before long, Calvin, Buddy, and Clay form a family amid the threatening dangers and despair of the streets. Clay knows that leaving the streets and going into foster care means that he may never see his parents again. But if he stays, he may not survive at all. An ALA Best Book for Young Adults, this acclaimed novel offers an intensely moving and candid look at the all-too-real lives of homeless teens.

Newbery Medal Winner: A young Louisiana boy faces the horrors of slavery when he is kidnapped and forced to work on a slave ship in this iconic novel. Thirteen-year-old Jessie Bollier earns a few pennies playing his fife on the docks of New Orleans. One night, on his way home, a canvas is thrown over his head and he’s knocked unconscious. When he wakes up, Jessie finds himself aboard a slave ship, bound for Africa. There, the Moonlight picks up ninety-eight black prisoners, and the men, women, and children, chained hand and foot, are methodically crammed into the ship’s hold. Jessie’s job is to provide music for the slaves to dance to on the ship’s deck—not for amusement but for exercise, as a way to to keep their muscles strong and their bodies profitable. Over the course of the long voyage, Jessie grows more and more sickened by the greed of the sailors and the cruelty with which the slaves are treated. But it’s one final horror, when the Moonlight nears her destination, that will change Jessie forever. Set during the middle of the nineteenth century, when the illegal slave trade was at its height, The Slave Dancer not only tells a vivid and shocking story of adventure and survival, but depicts the brutality of slavery with unflinching historical accuracy.

A hilarious tale from Newbery Medal winner Paula Fox: Maurice loves to collect things—but what happens when he collects too many things? Eight-year-old Maurice is a collector. It doesn’t matter how big or how small it is—if he likes something, he’ll bring it home with him. His newest addition is a dried octopus hanging by a string from the ceiling. There’s also a bottle of dead beetles, four painted turtles, and practical stuff like nails, screws, and wires. His parents have tried everything to persuade Maurice to get rid of the junk, giving him trumpet lessons and even a dog, but nothing can compare to the pleasure of discovering treasures in the nooks and crannies of New York City. Then one day, his parents tell him they have a surprise . . . A humorous and heartwarming story from Hans Christian Andersen Award–winning author Paula Fox, Maurice’s Room is perfect for kids of all ages marching to the beat of their own drums.

An exotic, heartbreaking memoir that should finally earn Paula Fox, a distinguished novelist and children''s book writer, the audience she has for decades deserved Paula Fox has long been acclaimed as one of America''s most brilliant fiction writers. Borrowed Finery, her first book in nearly a decade, is an astonishing memoir of her highly unusual beginnings. Born in the twenties to nomadic, bohemian parents, Fox is left at birth in a Manhattan orphanage, then cared for by a poor yet cultivated minister in upstate New York. Her parents, however, soon resurface. Her handsome father is a hard-drinking screenwriter who is, for young Paula, "part ally, part betrayer." Her mother is given to icy bursts of temper that punctuate a deep indifference. How, Fox wonder, is this woman "enough of an organic being to have carried me in her belly"? Never sharing more than a few moments with his daughter, Fox''s father allows her to be shunted from New York City, where she lives with her passive Spanish grandmother, to Cuba, where she roams freely on a relative''s sugar-cane plantation, to California, where she finds herself cast upon Hollywood''s grubby margins. The thread binding these wanderings is the "borrowed finery" of the title-a few pieces of clothing, almost always lent by kind-hearted strangers, that offer Fox a rare glimpse of permanency. Vivid and poetic, Borrowed Finery is an unforgettable book which will swell the legions of Paula Fox''s devoted admiriers.

"Chekhovian. . . . Every line of Fox''s story, every gesture of her characters, is alive and surprising."—Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, New York Times On the eve of their trip to Africa, Laura Maldonada Clapper and her husband, Desmond, sit in a New York City hotel room, drinking scotch-and-sodas and awaiting the arrival of three friends: Clara Hansen, Laura''s timid, brow-beaten daughter from a previous marriage; Carlos, Laura''s flamboyant and charming brother; and Peter Rice, a melancholy editor whom Laura hasn''t seen for over a year. But what begins as a bon voyage party soon parlays into a bitter, claustrophobic clash of family resentment. From the hotel room to the tony restaurant to which the five embark, Laura presides over the escalating innuendo and hostility with imperial cruelty, for she is hiding the knowledge that her mother, the family matriarch, has died of a heart attack that morning. A novel as intense as it is unerringly observed, The Widow''s Children is another revelation of the storyteller''s art from the incomparable Paula Fox.

A little boy who can''t spell or ever seem to please his parents spends a week with a kooky babysitter and makes a special friend.

"The best first novel I''ve read in quite a long time...A merciless uncovering of the exurban wastelands of the spirit." --New York Review of Books

Winner of the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award:A young girl learns some hard truths about human nature in this thought-provoking, beautifully crafted novel. Tomorrow, Emma’s uncle is coming to take her to his house on Long Island while her father undergoes surgery and her mother stays with him in hospital. For two whole weeks, Emma will be stuck with her father’s half-sister: the strange, bossy Aunt Bea. Luckily, Emma makes a friend at the beach, Bertie, and the two girls begin building a village made entirely of shells. There’s the mayor’s house, constructed of sand dollars and with a roof of pinecones, and the main street with white bubble shells. Every day the girls add to their village by the sea. Then, just before Emma is to return home, something awful happens. In this thoughtful novel, Newbery Medal and Hans Christian Andersen Award winner Paula Fox offers an unflinching and candid depiction of forgiveness and unconditional love.

"A rare and wondrous thing....[Fox] knows how to create a character."— Vogue Luisa de la Cueva was born on the Caribbean island of Malagita, of a plantation owner''s son and a native woman, a servant in the kitchen. Her years on Malagita were sweet with the beauty of bamboo, banana, and mango trees with flocks of silver-feathered guinea hens underneath, the magic of a victrola, and the caramel flan that Mama sneaked home from the plantation kitchen. Luisa''s father, fearing revolution, takes his family to New York. In the barrio his once-powerful name means nothing, and the family establishes itself in a basement tenement. For Luisa, Malagita becomes a dream. Luisa does not dream of going to college, as her friend Ellen does, or of winning the lottery, as her father does. She takes a job as a servant and, paradoxically, grows more independent. She marries and later raises a son alone. She works as a servant all her life. A Servant''s Tale is the story of a life that is simple on the surface but full of depth and richness as we come to know it, a story told with consummate grace and compassion by Paula Fox.

Only his strange great-aunt seems to understand the thoughts behind a young boy''s expressionless face as he returns on an eerie, snowy night from rescuing a dog that dislikes him.

Fox describes her movements across Europe''s scrambled borders as a journalist in 1946: unplanned trips to empty castles and ruined cathedrals, a stint in bombed-out Warsaw in the midst of the Communist election takeovers, and each place echoing with the horrors of the war.

National Book Award Winner: A grieving teenager wonders if she’ll ever understand anything—especially the big things—in life. Time passed, and all the minutes hurt . . . After her father’s death, Victoria Finch’s life changes completely. To save money, she and her mother move from Boston to a small house in the town of New Oxford. There, Victoria attends school in a building that resembles a train station, where no one pays her much attention. Then she meets Hugh Todd, the rich kid who runs the school’s theater club. He’s charming, adventurous, and encouraging, and he takes particular interest in Victoria’s writing. Hugh’s presence reinvigorates Victoria’s life. But he needs something as well, and as the months pass, Victoria realizes that his friendship comes at a high price. A New York Times Outstanding Book of the Year, A Place Apart is a lyrical novel of loss, friendship, and moving on.

"Vividly rendered...haunting...[Paula Fox] writes with silken ease and a sensitivity to nuance." — Newsday In 1941, twenty-three-year-old Helen Bynum leaves home for the first time and sets out from rural New York to find her Aunt Lulu, an aging actress in New Orleans. There she finds a life of passion and adventure, possibilities and choices. Falling in with a bohemian group of intellectuals, she discovers romance and sex, friendship and risk, her world mirrored by the steamy mystery of the French Quarter.

Annie Ginfala is a young woman cast adrift in Hollywood with World War II looming. Defending herself against personal catastrophe, she tries to save her life and escape.

Summary: Liam''s father has AIDS, and his family cannot talk about it until Liam reveals a secret that he has tried to deny ever since he saw his father embracing another man at the beach.

From Newbery Medal–winning author Paula Fox,an isolated young girl discovers surprising revelations about her grandmother—and herself. Eleven-and-a-half-year-old Elizabeth Benedict is furious when she finds out she’ll be spending a month with her grandmother in Maine. She’s sure she’s being packed off to a remote island to live in a cottage without electricity or plumbing so that her parents can be alone with her new baby brother. While her grandmother spends her days painting, Elizabeth explores the island. She is drawn to Aaron, the strange son of their only neighbors. One day, something happens that changes everything—and reveals the real reason she was sent to Pring Island. A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, this incandescent novel takes on themes of isolation, creativity, and family as an elderly woman confronts her own mortality with acceptance and dignity.

An eleven-year-old boy gains a new understanding of himself and his father after a trip to Florida with unusual people.

Newbery Medal winner Paula Fox depicts a fateful summer on the mysterious Greek island of Thasos in this “haunting tale” (TheNew York Times Book Review). Lily Corey and her older brother, Paul, have been summering on the Greek island of Thasos with their parents. For Lily, it’s been fun hanging out with her brother, exploring the island, and studying ancient mythology and archaeology—until they meet Jack Hemmings. When Paul and Jack become friends, Lily feels left out. She thinks Jack is a show-off and a fake. She also knows he’s sad and lonely, yet she still wishes the boys would include her on their wild adventures. Then, one day, Jack shows off too much and something terrible happens . . . Amid the wilds of an exotic Greek island, Lily and the Lost Boy is the “beautifully crafted” (Kirkus Reviews) story of a young girl coming of age and discovering her courage and compassion.

"Not only can Fox see, she can hear, she can feel."—Zadie Smith, Harper''s This gathering of Paula Fox''s short work spans her illustrious career, from 1965 to the present including perfectly turned stories; pointed, engaging essays; and raw yet eloquent memoir.

With the help of a falcon an ineffectual medieval king trades the troubled, boring life of royalty for the freedom of a falconer.

Carrie''s half brother Ben has long felt rejected by his father until, on a strange visit in Boston, he is able to see that his father really needs him.

Ten-year-old James skips school to go to his secret place, a deserted house, where he is found by three teenage boys who force him to join their dognapping ring.

Un famélico gato callejero muerde a Sophie cuando ésta le da de comer. Ella, una atractiva mujer de cuarenta años a la que la vida parece tratar muy bien, y Otto, su marido, forman una de esas parejas burguesas neoyorquinas de finales de los sesenta que podrían despertar la sana envidia de cualquiera: un Mercedes, casa en Long Island, las obras completas de Goethe en su biblioteca... El incidente del gato, en apariencia banal, desata una serie de pequeños e inquietantes desastres comienzan a jalonar su vida revelando fisuras de un matrimonio (y una sociedad) que se está desintegrando. Tras este arranque aparentemente anecdótico, tras la fina ironía de los diálogos y la sucesión de cataclismos domésticos que habrán de producirse, late la tragedia existencial que sustenta todas las historias de Paula Fox: la incapacidad de sus personajes para comprender la verdadera esencia de la vida, que subyace a la apariencia de las cosas, la complejidad de los sentimientos humanos y el desmoronamiento de una sociedad cada vez más artificiosa. Felizmente rescatada del olvido por el escritor norteamericano Jonathan Franzen, la narrativa de Paula Fox merece un lugar de privilegio entre los grandes nombres de su generación como Philip Roth, Saul Bellow o John Updike. Abandonada por sus padres al nacer, la vida de Paula Fox (Nueva York, 1923) es un continuo tránsito por hogares de acogida y ciudades (en Cuba, Estados Unidos, Europa y Canadá), durante el cual ejerce los más variados oficios, estudia letras en la Columbia University y, finalmente, ya en su madurez, decide dedicarse en plenitud a la creación literaria.Ha escrito más de treinta obras (La cometa rota, La danza de los esclavos, El gato tuerto, entre otras) para público infantil, cuyo conjunto se hizo merecedor del prestigioso premio Andersen en 1978. Su obra se completa con seis novelas para adultos entre las que cabe destacar Strange Characters, God of Nightmares y un libro de memorias, Elegancia prestada.

In the form of a fable, five stories within a story are full of wisdom & humour and feature animal protagonists. 8-11 yrs.

The retelling of three Italian folktales: Amzat and His brothers, Mezgalten and Olimpia, Cucol and the Door.