Part of Series
In the tradition of BECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE and THE BEAN TREES comes a novel that charms and amazes, with a voice that draws you in like a warm-hearted charismatic friend. Cedar B. Hartley is exasperating and potentially infamous. She steps on cracks. She plans to live an unusual life. She is the winner of her school's Bat Pole Championship, (which she made up). She misses her brother Barnaby, who ran away, and who sends her postcards from all over the country. And she's definitely a hopeless winker—both eyes go at once, like a blink. But Cedar B. Hartley has potential. She knows the difference between touching and touching on a couch. She knows the long distance between an idea and the real thing. And she has a green thumb for people, which will come in handy as she discovers truths about her friends, her family, and her life.
Author
Martine Murray, a native and a current resident of Melbourne, Australia, is an accomplished author with a variety of other talents and interests. She has studied film making at Prahan College, painting at the Victorian College of the Arts, and movement and dance at Melbourne University. She began writing as a method of keeping track of all of her activities. She explains, “I was writing in journals a lot while I was in art school. I also used to write on my canvasses or write on etchings and make tiny stories that weren't really stories, they were more like sketches of moments.” Soon enough, Martine had authored and illustrated the gentle, funny, and gloriously playful books such as The Slightly True Story of Cedar B. Hartley (Who Planned to Live an Unusual Life). In the story of twelve-year old Cedar B. Hartley, the young heroine befriends the son of a circus family and coordinates a local circus to raise money for the community's dog operation. The book has won a number of awards, including NYPL 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing, Book Sense 76 Children's Pick, it was shortlisted for Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the year Award, shortlisted for New South Wales Premier's Literary Award, and won the Patricia Wrightson Prize for Children's Books. Martine Murray is currently enrolled in Professional Writing at RMIT and plans further study in screen writing and short story.
