Best Selling Books by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Sometimes you just have to pack a suitcase and walk out the door Marly knows her older sister, Kit, is tall, beautiful, and outspoken—everything Marly isn''t. But does everyone have to remind her of it all the time? Since her parents'' divorce, her mom hasn''t had a single nice thing to say—and even if she did, she''s always working. So Marly packs her bags and catches the bus to stay with her dad. She knows he''ll want her, and hopefully his new wife will too. Ed and Sally are surprised to find Marly on their doorstep but excited to take her in and become a family. They cook together and laugh together, and no one ever shouts at anyone else, a big difference from Marly''s life with her mom. Marly has kept quiet up until now, which has given her a reputation for being well behaved. But once she starts getting used to being treated like an actual person, she begins talking about what''s important to her. She may not be able to stop—and she may not want to.

Although initially afraid that she''ll lose her best friend unless they prepare for their bat mitzvahs together, Becky undergoes a change in her thinking that puts much more than her friendship in jeopardy.

When a wealthy aunt offers to adopt one of the March girls, ten-year-old Jo decides the best thing to do is sacrifice herself.

Meredith, dreading an encounter with her cousin who always hits her and steps on her toes, fantasizes some imaginative disasters that might prevent their visit.

After saving a young boy’s life, a girl finds that fame can be a real headache On the last warm day of autumn, Dana and her best friend eat ice cream, gossip, and complain about school. It’s just like any other afternoon until Dana walks home and sees a toddler break away from his mother and sprint into the street. Without thinking, she chases after him, pushing him onto the sidewalk just before a giant blue car would have run them both down. She didn’t mean to do it, but Dana has become a heroine—and her life will never be the same. Saving the boy makes her the darling of the entire town. She gets a story written about her in the paper, praise from strangers—even a beautiful Persian kitten as a gift from the boy’s mother. At first she loves the attention, but she soon learns that being a celebrity brings hardship, too—and a challenge that will require her to show courage in a whole new way.

After her father moves away, Laurie sends her love by mail The scariest thing Laurie has ever seen is a half-empty house, which she discovered the day her dad moved away. The divorce was a long time coming, but that didn''t make it hurt any less. To stay in touch with her father, Laurie''s mom forces her to write him a letter each week, keeping him updated on everything from quizzes and tests to parties and boys. At first, the letters are a chore, a painful reminder that Dad isn''t around anymore, but with every stamp she licks, Laurie finds herself growing up just a little bit more. This remarkable novel, told entirely through Laurie''s letters to her father, is a powerful story of divorce and renewal that proves it''s not impossible to love someone from afar.

To save her business, a young entrepreneur dreams bigger than ever before When she wanted a new bike, Janie started doing odd jobs around the neighborhood for a dollar an hour. She promised her clients that no job was too big or too small—and Kid Power was born. By the end of the summer, she had regular clients, employees, and a steady stream of income—all the makings of a tiny business empire. But after Labor Day, summer work vanished, and Kid Power was no more. Janie is about to give up on the business when she realizes that there will be snow on the ground soon—snow that needs shoveling. She reinvents Kid Power as a cold-weather company, doing all the winter chores that people will pay her to do. But when the money starts rolling in, so does trouble. Kid Power may be headed for the deep freeze.

Playing the role of a happy pageant winner is not exactly the acting career Kit had in mind Kit Carson keeps trying to tell people that she didn’t do anything. All she did was put on a bathing suit in front of the judges, and suddenly she’s a beauty contest winner. It’s true that the money will come in handy—new dresses and college educations don’t grow on trees when your mom is a nurse and your dad doesn’t always remember to help out—but all Kit really wants is to try out her dream of being an actress. Not a famous one, just successful enough to have a career in a modest theater and make a living doing what she loves. But now that Kit’s a beauty queen, people seem to expect a lot from her. Above all, they seem to think she should gratefully accept the limited roles she’s being offered, which are mostly those of beautiful, not-too-independent, all-American girls. Between pageant ambitions and romantic interests, Kit gets the sense that there could be plenty of opportunities in her future—as long as she’s willing to play the part.

"The right thing never just happens; you have to make it happen." Morgan knows her parents left her in boarding school so they could travel the world, which is why hardly anything changes when they''re killed in an accident during her freshman year at Fairfield. But every orphan needs a guardian, and Morgan''s is her uncle Tom, a famous and somewhat eccentric author. Tom''s New York City apartment has plenty of space for Morgan, and her room is the nicest one she''s ever seen, but her uncle, uncomfortable suddenly raising a fourteen-year-old girl, seems distant and preoccupied. Alone in an unfamiliar world, Morgan imagines what her school roommate, the popular and sarcastic Trinck, would think of everything. Would she approve of Morgan''s newly discovered love of reading or the friends she makes in New York? Slowly, Morgan makes a place for herself that is all her own and reflects on the person she is becoming—whether Trinck would like it or not.

Leigh trades in her acting career to play a starring role in her own life Most people don''t get to retire at age sixteen, but that''s what Leigh is planning to do when she moves to Long Island to live with her mom and her new stepfather. Leigh has been acting all her life, most recently on a successful TV show, and she can''t wait to be the kind of normal high school student she''s only ever played on screen. For advice on playing the role of a normal teenager, Leigh turns to her new stepbrother, Peter. Peter has hemophilia, a medical condition that has kept him out of school for a while—but missing out on high school life has given him a good eye for what normal looks like. Together, they figure two outsiders can create one socially successful high school student. They might even be right. Peter is smart, wryly funny, and a good friend when he''s not being a bad invalid. And Leigh knows she can do it—after all, acting is what she''s good at. But the thing about acting is that at the end of the day you get to go back to being yourself, a luxury Leigh starts to think she might not have appreciated enough when she had it.

Miranda, Molly, Alison, TJ, Bill, and Rafe are becoming stars on TV’s biggest show, but with fame come responsibilities . . . Can they really have it all? Miranda is celebrating her seventeenth birthday. She can’t believe it’s been a whole year since she was cast in Hard Time High. Now she just got her own car and may finally get out from under the thumb of her family. But does she really want to move in with her costar Molly and her mother—especially since she and Molly aren’t on great terms at the moment? Miranda’s personal life starts looking up when she agrees to go on a blind date with Adam, who has a crush on the character Miranda plays on the show. The Los Angeles University senior is tall, dark, and totally un-California. And with Alison offered the chance to move beyond her beauty-queen looks as cohost of a teen talk show, Rafe wrapping a movie, and TJ’s fan base growing, it looks like they’re all getting ready for the next big thing. Will the upcoming season bring them the fame and happiness they’ve been searching for?

Sometimes Abby thinks the most important event in her life happened before she was even born Abby''s not dying; in fact she''s perfectly healthy. If she were dead, maybe her father would grieve for her the way he''s still grieving for Johnny, who would have been Abby''s older brother if he hadn''t died when he was only two. Probably not though. The only time her dad even notices her is when he''s pushing her into an Ivy League college. And now that Abby''s oldest sister, Jocelyn, has left for med school, and Jess, the middle sister, has run away to pursue a major in drug and alcohol addiction, her mom is rarely home. Living among strangers, Abby writes letters and makes up imaginary dialogues with a boy that she''s too shy to approach. And she draws up her will over and over, trying to decide who should inherit her teddy bears and who should get all the guilt and recrimination that have accumulated in her family. Left alone—as always—Abby figures her choices are to be physically dead, emotionally dead, or really alive. But living means shaking things up, taking chances, and saying all those things her family would rather keep covered up. It might not end well, but what does she have to lose?

You can buy a lot of things with enough money, but you can’t buy the truth After Val skips one Sunday dinner with her cousin Michelle’s family, everything changes. Val and Michelle’s fathers aren’t getting along, and she just wanted to avoid the tension that she knew would be on the menu. Val’s mom died of cancer two years ago, and now her father’s love and her mother’s memory are all she has. But Michelle can’t let it go, and in her anger she drops a bombshell: “You’re not really family. You don’t really count.” Is it true? How come no one—not her teachers, not her classmates, not their parents—seems surprised? Other kids at school are adopted; it’s not a secret. So why hasn’t anyone told Val? Slowly Val starts to see that things are different for her. Other kids don’t have bodyguards or a dad who gives them whatever they want with his piles of money. Up till now, Val has repaid her father’s love by being the obedient daughter he expects, but now she needs something else: She needs the truth.

In 1913 when she is sent to the Austen Home for Orphaned Girls, eleven-year-old Emily copes with her difficult circumstances with the help of the town librarian and the hope of finding her younger sister.

In a heavily illustrated, scrapbook format, readers will learn about the real-life people behind the beloved book characters they''ve come to know. From Christopher Robin and Peter Rabbit to Peter Pan''s Lost Boys and Alice in Wonderland, award-winning author Susan Beth Pfeffer explores the real lives of the real people who inspired the creation of literature''s greatest characters. There are even a few surprises about Mother Goose!

Since her older brother always wins at ping pong, checkers, and everything else, Amy decides to learn riddles in hope of finding some way she can beat him.

When she refuses to let her friend''s death be called an accident, eleven-year-old Emily, an orphan, encounters the ingrained prejudices of the "best" families in town

In 1923, fourteen-year-old Alicia Martinez is cast in an important silent movie role by her best friend''s father, but near-disasters on the Hollywood set seem to be directed at her, and almost anyone could be responsible.

Laurie must choose between her average suburban life and one of fashion and glamour.