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The Amazing Days of Abby Hayes #12
Good Things Come In Small Packages
The latest book in this increasingly popular series focuses on the growing friendship between Abby and the new girl in school, Hannah.
When Abby and her new friend, Hannah, take charge of a class project to assemble gift packages for underprivileged children, one thing after the next goes wrong. First their teacher, Mrs. Kantor, must leave school for a few weeks. The class is stuck with a mean substitute who won't let them work on their gift boxes. Then, after their kind principal intervenes and work on the class project resumes, Hannah's baby sister unintentionally destroys many of the gift boxes. Working as a team, Abby and Hannah think of a clever way to save the day, their budding friendship, and the class project.
When Abby and her new friend, Hannah, take charge of a class project to assemble gift packages for underprivileged children, one thing after the next goes wrong. First their teacher, Mrs. Kantor, must leave school for a few weeks. The class is stuck with a mean substitute who won't let them work on their gift boxes. Then, after their kind principal intervenes and work on the class project resumes, Hannah's baby sister unintentionally destroys many of the gift boxes. Working as a team, Abby and Hannah think of a clever way to save the day, their budding friendship, and the class project.
112 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2003
3 people are currently reading
299 people want to read
About the author
Anne Mazer
73 books102 followersQuite a lot of Anne Mazer’s writing education took place while she was unconscious. Her parents wanted desperately to become writers and made themselves get up at 4:00 a.m. Every morning in order to have writing time before their three young children awoke. The first thing Anne heard every day was two big, noisy electric typewriters. The furious sound of typing was her childhood wake-up music. During the day, her parents endlessly discussed ideas, plot, and character, and before she was seven years old, Anne knew about revisions, first and second drafts, and rejection slips. It was like growing up in a twenty four hour, seven day a week writer’s boot camp.
In order to escape from her parents’ obsession with writing, Anne turned to books. She was an avid reader from an early age and credits her love of reading for her writing career. Her favorite works were fantasy, fairy tales, historical fiction, humor, realistic fiction, and adventure. Her other interests were language, art, history, and science. At the age of twelve, she wanted to be an actress, a ballerina and a nuclear physicist. These careers were rapidly eliminated as she realized that a) she couldn’t dance, b) she couldn’t act; and c) she hated math.
Although at the time Anne thought writing was nothing but a nuisance, she now considers herself very lucky to have grown up with two aspiring writers. She learned a lot about discipline, perseverance and dedication to a craft from witnessing her parents’ struggle. They eventually became successful and award-winning young adult novelists.
It took Anne a long time to figure out that she, too, wanted to be a writer. During early adulthood, she worked as an au pair, a bank teller, a pill bottle labeler, a receptionist, an English tutor, and an administrative assistant, as well as other jobs that she was ill-suited for. She attended three universities, spent several years in Paris, traveled throughout Europe, and worked in Boston and New York City.
Anne’s “eureka” moment about writing came while she prepared a research report for one of her bosses. As she lovingly polished each sentence, and meticulously organized the paragraphs, she realized that no one really cared how beautifully she wrote about the latest models of air-conditioners. Except her, of course.
Using her parents’ model of daily writing and discipline, she began to write. It took her seven years to publish her first book, a picture book inspired by her then two year old son, Max.
Anne is the mother of an adult son and daughter. Over the last twenty years, she has written over forty-five books for young readers. She has enough ideas to last for another quarter century and hopes that she will be writing for a very long time.
Fun Facts About Anne Mazer
Her favorite foods are popcorn, rice pudding and blueberries.
When she was a kid, she would sometimes read up to ten books a day.
If she had magic powers, she'd choose invisibility.
She painted the rooms in her house yellow, orange, and violet.
One of her favorite childhood books was The Twilight of Magic, by Hugh Lofting.
When Anne was a teenager, her room was so messy that she needed a map to get from the door to the bed. (sort of)
In school Anne often flunked her favorite creative subjects, like writing and art.
In order to escape from her parents’ obsession with writing, Anne turned to books. She was an avid reader from an early age and credits her love of reading for her writing career. Her favorite works were fantasy, fairy tales, historical fiction, humor, realistic fiction, and adventure. Her other interests were language, art, history, and science. At the age of twelve, she wanted to be an actress, a ballerina and a nuclear physicist. These careers were rapidly eliminated as she realized that a) she couldn’t dance, b) she couldn’t act; and c) she hated math.
Although at the time Anne thought writing was nothing but a nuisance, she now considers herself very lucky to have grown up with two aspiring writers. She learned a lot about discipline, perseverance and dedication to a craft from witnessing her parents’ struggle. They eventually became successful and award-winning young adult novelists.
It took Anne a long time to figure out that she, too, wanted to be a writer. During early adulthood, she worked as an au pair, a bank teller, a pill bottle labeler, a receptionist, an English tutor, and an administrative assistant, as well as other jobs that she was ill-suited for. She attended three universities, spent several years in Paris, traveled throughout Europe, and worked in Boston and New York City.
Anne’s “eureka” moment about writing came while she prepared a research report for one of her bosses. As she lovingly polished each sentence, and meticulously organized the paragraphs, she realized that no one really cared how beautifully she wrote about the latest models of air-conditioners. Except her, of course.
Using her parents’ model of daily writing and discipline, she began to write. It took her seven years to publish her first book, a picture book inspired by her then two year old son, Max.
Anne is the mother of an adult son and daughter. Over the last twenty years, she has written over forty-five books for young readers. She has enough ideas to last for another quarter century and hopes that she will be writing for a very long time.
Fun Facts About Anne Mazer
Her favorite foods are popcorn, rice pudding and blueberries.
When she was a kid, she would sometimes read up to ten books a day.
If she had magic powers, she'd choose invisibility.
She painted the rooms in her house yellow, orange, and violet.
One of her favorite childhood books was The Twilight of Magic, by Hugh Lofting.
When Anne was a teenager, her room was so messy that she needed a map to get from the door to the bed. (sort of)
In school Anne often flunked her favorite creative subjects, like writing and art.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
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April 2, 2009If someone is being mean to you, you have to defend yourselfs no matter what.
May 9, 2011
Genre: Modern fiction, middle reader
Wonderful story that speaks of the friendships and feelings middle readers face. There is humor and fun throughout the story. I think the reader can understand the feeling and events that are happening. I think readers of this age will enjoy this series.
Wonderful story that speaks of the friendships and feelings middle readers face. There is humor and fun throughout the story. I think the reader can understand the feeling and events that are happening. I think readers of this age will enjoy this series.
January 14, 2008
i love these books.
November 16, 2008
About making friends...
March 20, 2009
When I was little I really liked these.
September 8, 2009
The best book ever
May 24, 2011
Quiet Sunday night, stuck at the back desk kind of read.
September 27, 2011
abby now has a new best friend hannah because jessica went to go live with her dad.I was very shocked that hannahs little sister got half of the presents wet.
February 10, 2024
This definitely reads like a middle book in a series (#12!), but luckily, it's easy to pick up what's happening. I did keep forgetting the title of the book and thought Hannah was the main character, though! (oops)
The main thing I didn't like was Ms. Lee seems ridiculously hostile. I know my mother-in-law once told me that people didn't need particular qualifications to be a substitute teacher (and that *I* could be one... *shudder*), but honestly? How is someone who so clearly doesn't like kids going around and being a substitute teacher??
The rest of the book is perfectly fine, and exactly what I would expect from an elementary-age story for elementary-ish readers! A fun read about the joy (and headache) of charitable gift-giving!
The main thing I didn't like was Ms. Lee seems ridiculously hostile. I know my mother-in-law once told me that people didn't need particular qualifications to be a substitute teacher (and that *I* could be one... *shudder*), but honestly? How is someone who so clearly doesn't like kids going around and being a substitute teacher??
The rest of the book is perfectly fine, and exactly what I would expect from an elementary-age story for elementary-ish readers! A fun read about the joy (and headache) of charitable gift-giving!
July 18, 2020
I think this book is very interesting, this book is about a group of children made a lot of gifts and they sent the gifts to kids whose families can't afford presents. I really like the main character, Abby, because she is very kind, and she help her teacher to collect gifts and also helped the teacher to send the gifts.
Read
November 12, 2008first one i read
December 12, 2009
i didnt read the 11th one so i didnt know that she made friends with hannah .
November 5, 2012
It was a really good book
Read
August 13, 2017i never read it but was wondering, who is that with abby on the cover ? jessica ?
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews