Polly Horvath

Madeline's parents have gone missing. Her only clues? A note tacked on the fridge from someone called The Enemy, a file card covered in a squiggly secret code, and dozens of red eyes staring out the blackened windows of a car she saw speeding down her driveway. And Madeline could swear the driver was a fox...

Luckily, Madeline encounters two bunnies who have decided to take up detective work (detectives get to wear fedoras!) and are willing to come to her aid - pro bono. And if her parents' show more kidnappers are foxes, who better than rabbit detectives to sniff them out?

Together, Madeline and Mr. and Mrs. Bunny confront evil foxes, a marmot named The Marmot, and the dreaded Bunny Council to solve the Case of the Missing Parents. show less

Aunt Sally is the sister that their dad never talks about, but when Melissa, Amanda, and Pee Wee Anderson's parents need a babysitter for a week and the normal one is sick, the children find themselves in the charge of Aunt Sally, the oddest relative they have ever encountered. Aunt Sally lets the children dig through her luggage and play with their food, and she tells them the wildest stories of growing up on magical, mysterious Vancouver Island. There's the one about Great-Uncle Louis, who show more came for two weeks and stayed for six years, and the one about Aunt Hattie's mysterious romance -- and, of course, the one about the trolls. That story about the trolls, in fact, might explain a lot about their family history. But of course, trolls aren't real . . . are they?

Whenever I read a book by Polly Horvath, I know to expect a bit of weirdness and whimsy, and this book is no exception. It's a slim volume, but Horvath expertly weaves Aunt Sally's family stories through the framework of a week in the lives of the Anderson children. Aunt Sally is just the sort of crazy aunt that I would like to be, someday -- but I think I'd rather not encounter the trolls. show less

"Haven't you ever just known something is true?" Little Primrose Squarp is a different sort of girl ... she doesn't seem to fit in anywhere since her parents were lost at sea and are presumed dead. She doesn't believe they perished at sea and she doesn't seem too upset by being bounced around from old Miss Perfidy's mothball ridden house to living with her uncle who she barely knows. She's happy so long as she can go to The Girl on the Red Swing restaurant where the kindly owner, Miss show more Bowser, listens to her and teaches her how to cook several of the dishes she serves at the restaurant ... where every meal is served on a waffle. Primrose sits and munches on waffles while she talks about all that is happening to her and Miss Bowser offers advice and an ear to listen. It seems bad things keep happening to Primrose, but she takes them all in stride, even with the annoying Miss Honeycutt continually interfering in her life and making things worse than they already are. Never once does Primrose believe all those who tell her that her parents died when her mother went out in a small boat to look for her father who was out on a fishing boat in a terrible storm. She just knows they are alive and continually asks those around her if they haven't ever just known something to be true no matter what. She's proven right in the end when her parents make a miraculous arrival home after having been stranded on a deserted island. Everything on a Waffle is a delightful, funny, richly woven tale about keeping faith, being yourself, and accepting all that life may throw in your path. It includes several recipes written in Primrose's wonderfully frank and funny style. A must read for both youngsters and adults alike. show less

Baby Ernest enjoys his parents' smiles, and the smiles of others in his family: cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents. "Nice people, he thought. What a good family to be born into. The only thing that would make it better would be some elephants." On his first birthday, Ernest tries out smiling himself, but "aside from the interesting stretchy face sensation it was not for him."

Ernest "did everything else they wanted," but steadfastly refuses to smile, despite his parents' asking. "It was a show more little exhausting to tell you the truth." Ernest's parents take him on wonderful outings, hoping to coax out a smile, and eventually ask him what he wants. An elephant, he answers, never believing he'll get one ("they didn't have the furniture for it"), but incredibly, Marcia shows up!

Still, no smiles. But when his parents ask, "Why aren't you happy?" Ernest is surprised. "I am happy. I'm almost always happy. I'm just not a smiley guy." They come up with a solution, another way for Ernest to show he's happy - because "You don't have to change, but for the people you love you do what you can."

An earnest, yet humorous story showing that people have different ways of showing their feelings, and sometimes it takes a bit of effort and communication to understand each other - but with respect and love, it's all possible.

This book reminds me of the joke about the kid who didn't speak his whole life, until his nth birthday, when he politely said he preferred chocolate cake to vanilla. Family and friends are astonished and ask why he didn't speak up till now; he says, "Till now everything was just fine." show less