A family, like a quilt, can be pieced together in many ways. And a quilt, like a family, is reach with stories. Lacey's great-grandmother has a trunkful of family quilts, and stories, she loves to share with Lacey. And the stories the old quilts tell help Lacey understand not only the generations that have come before her, but her own family as well.
Take Ellen, Lacey's great-great-great-great-grandmother, growing up on an Illinois farm in 1830. Ellen asks her father to bring her some blue calico; instead, he brings her a new stepmother, Julia, and Julia's difficult son, Silas. It isn't until clashes between Silas and Ellen's father threaten to tear her new family apart that Ellen realizes how much Julia has come to mean to her -- but is it too late to save her patchwork family?
The Lemonade Trick by Scott Corbett
A mysterious potion mixed by Kerby with his chemistry set has a beneficial effect on the neighborhood bully but also wreaks havoc at the Sunday School pageant.
On the first day of seventh grade, superstitious Luke wears his lucky shirt and carries his lucky rabbit's foot. Alas, an unpleasant surprise is in store for him. He can't believe his eyes when he sees his locker assignment: number 13. Luke's luck goes from bad to worse as he messes up in the swim team tryout, aggravates the school bully, and finds a black cat in his locker! Meanwhile, his best friend, Hannah, is riding high on good fortune.
It isn't until Luke finds a new lucky charm in his locker--a tiny skull with glowing red eyes--that the tides begin to turn. Or do they? Is Luke flying too close to the sun, or has his destiny really reversed? His encounter with the diabolical Fate Master is about to transform his life forever--or end it.
What a way to spend a holiday in sunny California! Liam and Diane brother and sister, hoped to have a good time with their mom. They would be staying at that great old hotel. But, when Mom has to leave them alone; terrible things threaten. Their room with a view reveals really rotten secrets.
Leave the lights on or it could be check-out time--permanently! Be sure to tip the bellboy from beyond or he'll lose your luggage.
What do you do without your best friend? Jamie isn't afraid of anything. Always ready to get into trouble, then right back out of it, he's a fun and exasperating best friend.
But when something terrible happens to Jamie, his best friend has to face the tragedy alone. Without Jamie, there are so many impossible questions to answer — how can your best friend be gone forever? How can some things, like playing games in the sun or the taste of the blackberries that Jamie loved, go on without him?
Beware of Helen...
Heather is such a whiny little brat. Always getting Michael and me into trouble. But since our mother married her father, we're stuck with her...our "poor stepsister" who lost her real mother in a mysterious fire.
But now something terrible has happened. Heather has found a new friend, out in the graveyard behind our home -- a girl named Helen who died with her family in a mysterious fire over a hundred years ago. Now her ghost returns to lure children into the pond...to drown! I don't want to believe in ghosts, but I've followed Heather into the graveyard and watch her talk to Helen. And I'm terrified. Not for myself, but for Heather.
