I'm Emma: I'm a Quint

by Stella Pevsner

The story begun with Sister of the Quints continues as Emma, now in junior high, attempts to find an identity separate from being "one of the Wentworth quints" and discovers that a first boyfriend and an acting class can help.

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction

186 pages, Hardcover

First published October 18, 1993

About the author

Stella Pevsner, who is the author of eighteen books for children from 8 to 13 years, was voted Illinois Children's Book Author of the Year 1987. Among her awards are The Golden Kite; the Carl Sandburg, the Society of Midland Authors, Arkansas State, Virginia State, and the Dorothy Canfield Fisher.

After a career in advertising and freelance writing, she turned to children's books at the request of a young son who said his favorite author "didn't write fast enough." She wrote a book to fulfill her role as "the invincible parent" and enjoyed it so much that after the book-by-request (Break a Leg!) was published she kept on writing.

Early favorites among her books are The Night the Whole Class Slept Over; Me, My Goat and My Sister's Wedding; A Smart Kid Like You; Cute is a 4-Letter Word; Sister of the Quints; I'm Emma: I'm a Quint. One of her prize-winning novels, And You Give Me a Pain, Elaine describes how a girl survives life with an out-of-bounds teenage sister and then a greater family tragedy. Teen suicide and its after-effects on the family is the subject of another awards book, How Could You Do It, Diane?

Her experiences tutoring at Literacy Chicago led to a book which depicted the life of her Chinese student, an outcast in north Viet Nam during the war. The young girl, along with other children, hid in the jungle during air raids, and finally, was forced to flee with her family. The book, called Sing for Your Father, Su Phan, is treasured by the former student, now a Chicago salon owner, as a record of more difficult times. A continued association with the Chinese family inspired Stella Pevsner to write a book about the friendship between an Asian and Caucasian girl, titled, Would My Fortune Cookie Lie?

Jon, Flora, and the Odd-Eyed Cat describes the secret meetings on summer nights between a boy recovering from rheumatic fever and the never-seen-in-daylight girl who owns a mysterious cat. A girl who feels the whole world has gone berserk is the heroine of Is Everyone Moonburned but Me?

"Although some of my books deal with serious situations in the lives of children, my underlying theme is that there is always hope and yes, humor, in day-to-day living," the author says. In her frequent speeches to school children, she urges them to do their best since, in the words of Samuel Boswell, "The future is purchased by the present." She hopes that kids who enjoy her books will be encouraged to go on reading forever.

Reviews

[Wintermint · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was an excellent book, so I am re-reading it. Emma is a girl who was born a quintuplet and she wants to shine, not because of how she was born, but for what she does. One of her two sisters, Alice, is determined to let the world know that she is a quint and show the world her two brothers and two sisters, as she trys to convince the other quints to go into public with her. Their parents, trying to keep them silent, are oblivious of Alice's sceme and send the children to two diffrent schools and never take more than two of the non-identical quintuplets. Emma wants to act, so she asks her mom for money so that she can go to Helen's acting school (in the back of a laundry mat) and her mom says that she will, so Emma does go to the acting school. One day, Emma and her best fiend Gypsy are helping Kurt, a person who lives in Gypsy's house with her and her mom, with a moving job. As they are outside, they meet three boys and Gypsy, not telling her friend till affterwards, gets the boys' phone numbers. After the boys had departed from the two friends, Gypsy gives her friend James', the tallest one, Phone number and says he likes Emma. Emma doesn't use the phone number for awhile, it just sat usless where ever she put it, until one night, she gets the courage and calls it. She hangs up, but then the phone rang, she asnwers it and it is James on the phone. He asks her if she wants to go skating on Saturday, she says after her acting lessons, and he asks if he can pick her up and she says on an impulse that he can, but that she doesn't hae any skates, and he says he will get his little brothers skates. So, after acting lessons, he picks her up (NOT in the literal sense) and they go skating. After they are done, Emma says that she will go to her aunt's place, and James asks iif he can go with her, she sahys he can but that there is no sidewalk leading to her house, and he says they can ride her bike together, her on the bar and him peadling, and she says sure, inside thinking that if her parents found out, she would be in trouble. They get to her aunt's house full of exotic birds, and she says to watch where he steps because she lets some birds free throughout the house. After they depart from her house, they go their separate for the day. Emma had learned from him that he went to the school the boys and one of her sisters went to, only he didn't know that he did, he didn't know that she was a quint, she had just heard the name of the school, and she knew her silings went there. Read the book to find out: Did Alice's plan cracks through? Did anyone besides Gypsy find out about her hanging with James? Did Emma ever get to act? I recomend this book to girls because it is from a girls point of veiw.

[Em · Rating 5 out of 5]

this was sucha cute book I'll never be too old for these cool books!

[Mahima · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quints! You don't hear that often. Did u know that in the Guiness Book of World Records, the most children someone has had is seven!I thought it would be more than ten!

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

okay, for a teen novel. very quick read. picked it off the shelf cuz of my niece, Emma.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book as a kid! I'm an only child so the family dynamics were fascinating to me.