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The Handle and the Key Display
Dan is a shy, quiet foster child who has been moved from home to home for as long as he can remember, so when the Knox family decides to adopt him, Dan doesn't dare believe that this new, almost perfect home is permanent. Mary Kate is the Knoxes' only daughter, a bright, outspoken girl who is determined to prove to her parents that they only need her, and the new baby that is on the way.
Like a vivid assortment of snapshots that tell a story, the short chapters of this highly engrossing novel shift back and forth between the perspectives of Dan and Mary Kate. Eventually both children adjust as they deal with the many complex reactions brought on by this adoption, and Dan finally becomes-in a very real and moving way-a member of the family.
Like a vivid assortment of snapshots that tell a story, the short chapters of this highly engrossing novel shift back and forth between the perspectives of Dan and Mary Kate. Eventually both children adjust as they deal with the many complex reactions brought on by this adoption, and Dan finally becomes-in a very real and moving way-a member of the family.
160 pages, Hardcover
First published September 30, 2002
12 people want to read
About the author
John Neufeld
30 books27 followers"I always wanted to be a writer. I started writing early, and badly, sending off short stories to national magazines when I was ten or eleven. They were all returned.
"But I kept at it. All through high school and college. Everything I sent out came back. Thanks but no thanks.
"I moved to New York and worked in a publishing house. I kept writing. In fact, I was fired from my first job for spending more time on my own projects than on the publishing house's.
"I wrote on.
"In 1968, an editor from a small California publishing house and I had lunch. She gave me an outline for a story she thought I could write well. I knew immediately I had to try.
"But what I wanted to do was write a short book, full of emotion and detail and excitement, for readers of all ages. I didn't know that Edgar Allan would be regarded as a children's book.
"It was.
"And when it was, everything fell into place. The minute Edgar Allan was launched successfully, I sat down to write Lisa, Bright and Dark. It, too, was a success so there was no turning back. Although I do write books for adults, the ideas that stimulate me always seem to come to me in the form of a story for young readers. I get ideas from everywhere: from the newspapers, from radio, from lunches and talks I have with friends.
"Right now, if I never get another idea, I have more story lines to work on than my lifetime probably permits."
Both Edgar Allan and Lisa, Bright and Dark, were selected as among the Best Books of the Year by The New York Times. Lisa, Bright and Dark was filmed for television, and aired as a Hallmark Hall of Fame on NBC-TV. Mr. Neufeld's other books have as recently as spring 2000 been cited as among the best of last year's Young Adult titles by the New York Public Library and YASLA.
(From: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/au...)
"But I kept at it. All through high school and college. Everything I sent out came back. Thanks but no thanks.
"I moved to New York and worked in a publishing house. I kept writing. In fact, I was fired from my first job for spending more time on my own projects than on the publishing house's.
"I wrote on.
"In 1968, an editor from a small California publishing house and I had lunch. She gave me an outline for a story she thought I could write well. I knew immediately I had to try.
"But what I wanted to do was write a short book, full of emotion and detail and excitement, for readers of all ages. I didn't know that Edgar Allan would be regarded as a children's book.
"It was.
"And when it was, everything fell into place. The minute Edgar Allan was launched successfully, I sat down to write Lisa, Bright and Dark. It, too, was a success so there was no turning back. Although I do write books for adults, the ideas that stimulate me always seem to come to me in the form of a story for young readers. I get ideas from everywhere: from the newspapers, from radio, from lunches and talks I have with friends.
"Right now, if I never get another idea, I have more story lines to work on than my lifetime probably permits."
Both Edgar Allan and Lisa, Bright and Dark, were selected as among the Best Books of the Year by The New York Times. Lisa, Bright and Dark was filmed for television, and aired as a Hallmark Hall of Fame on NBC-TV. Mr. Neufeld's other books have as recently as spring 2000 been cited as among the best of last year's Young Adult titles by the New York Public Library and YASLA.
(From: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/au...)
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