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The Amazing Days of Abby Hayes #5
Look Before You Leap
Abby decides that, since she has nothing else to do this summer, she will adopt a kitten, but when she makes new friends and enters a contest, she finds her responsibilites towards her pet are becoming more of a burden.
160 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2001
5 people are currently reading
378 people want to read
About the author
Anne Mazer
73 books103 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.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
February 27, 2012
I would rather get a dog then a cat,other than that i liked the book.Because i like do caloges.And she took the resonsability to share the cat with her sister because she did not take as good of care with it.
I think this is a good book because it is very funny.Abby is a very sneaky because she got a cat that she wasn't suppose to have but she did any way.She named it Trouble because the cat was a lot of trouble.Some ways of trouble it knocked over Abby's dads work and she had to retype all of the work.
I think this is a good book because it is very funny.Abby is a very sneaky because she got a cat that she wasn't suppose to have but she did any way.She named it Trouble because the cat was a lot of trouble.Some ways of trouble it knocked over Abby's dads work and she had to retype all of the work.
January 3, 2013
It's summer, and Abby would like to get a cat. Her neighbor, Heather has a cat who just had kittens, so she adopts one without her parents' knowledge. At first it's fun, but then reality sets in: Abby's brother Alex is allergic to cat fur. Abby's friends are holding a swim competition and it appears the boys are going to cheat, and she needs to find time to take care of her cat and help her friends foil whatever the boys are planning. A light, fun read, this book explores the responsibilities of having a pet.
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January 19, 2017I thought the book was a good book because Abby Hayes was really wanting to have a pet kitten of her own but Abby was going to the swimming pool and was worried about Zach, Tyler, and Zach about their idea of cheating because they were planning on scaring Bethany for the contest because Bethany was scared of Spiders and when it was time for the diving contest Bethany and everyone else thought that was spiders but nothing was there at all so Bethany got over her fear so then Abby's family was finally choosing where to go on their family vacation and everyone was agreeing.
September 19, 2012
I liked this book because in the beginning, Abby was at the pool, and she saw her best friend Jessica and two of her other friends Bethany and Natalie. They planned a swim contest for Bethany and another boy. Abby got a pet, it was a little cat. She named it Trouble. On the day of the swim contest Bethany won. Abby's family was also trying to figure out a vacation idea. Abby's idea won. -by Felicity
July 15, 2013
This series is about a young girl named Abby Hayes and long time wish of having a pet. Her parents have repeatedly told her no but when given the chance to take a kitten from a friend she just can’t pass it up. She ends up hiding it in her bedroom. The book is fun for kids to read because some of the pages are written like they came right out of her diary. This would be a great series for second and third grade girls.
August 1, 2007
Cool book to read if you were bored but not if you want an interesting book. It teaches about responsibility. This may sound harsh but I've read much better.
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May 4, 2008watch before doing something
November 16, 2008
Very Funny.........
March 7, 2009
Ditto with "Every Cloud Has A silver Lining"
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April 2, 2009I learned that we should care animals instead of a stupid contest.
April 19, 2009
I read this book in febuary 5, 2009 . I founded it in Ms.Woodars new book bin.
April 30, 2009
great book too must read it!
September 12, 2009
:-)I really like this book.
July 8, 2010
It was good!
June 9, 2011
i thought it was cute and fun.
May 24, 2012
aww read this in 5th grade! its so cute, i have a little cat too so i can relate
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November 5, 2012It teaches a very good lesson
December 17, 2013
Really good book
October 31, 2019
Definitely the best of its kind👑
May 3, 2023
One word to describe this book. Amazing!
March 6, 2023
Some thoughts while reading:
1. Why does Abby collect calendars in the first place?
2. Why in the world would someone want a USED, random swimming calendar as a prize??
3. Why are Abby’s parents letting the children decide where to vacation when it’s bound to cause fighting and disagreements? I stand by my decision that Abby has horrible parents
4. Why would Abby decide to bring up that she wants a pet when her family was talking about vacations? It seems Abby can’t pick up on social cues and has a strange collection of old calendars. Possibly autism? But the author never says
5. Changing the cat’s name is SO DUMB
1. Why does Abby collect calendars in the first place?
2. Why in the world would someone want a USED, random swimming calendar as a prize??
3. Why are Abby’s parents letting the children decide where to vacation when it’s bound to cause fighting and disagreements? I stand by my decision that Abby has horrible parents
4. Why would Abby decide to bring up that she wants a pet when her family was talking about vacations? It seems Abby can’t pick up on social cues and has a strange collection of old calendars. Possibly autism? But the author never says
5. Changing the cat’s name is SO DUMB
July 30, 2021
Series Review:
Ah, Abby Hayes. What a truly unremarkable white girl that I still read about several times throughout elementary and middle school. A little harsh but it is what it is; these books were incredibly bland in proportion to how many times I picked them up over the years. The storylines were sort of relatable to me growing up but looking back, I only really remember being jarred by how un-white my life was (if that makes sense) and how much I liked the covers of the books. Sigh.
January 10, 2026
abby is struggling to handle figuring out a vacation idea with her family, figure a way to get a pet and than keep said pet out of trouble, she is also having to deal with a contest and the boys cheating. she has fun with her friends and in the end learns responsibility, help choose family vacation and natalie saved the contest.
June 8, 2009
I like cats, Jellicle Cats!
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews