Mazer, Norma Fox Books

Ten Ways To Make My Sister Disappear

Norma Fox Mazer

Amazon Price: $11.55 List Price: $16.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Arthur A. Levine Books Amazon Marketplace: 40 new & used starting at $4.30

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Ages 9-12 -> General
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Ages 9-12 -> General AAS
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Authors & Illustrators, A-Z -> ( M ) -> Mazer, Norma Fox

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A poignant, realistic story evolves. 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Norma Fox Mazer's TEN WAYS TO MAKE MY SISTER DISAPPEAR tells of ten-year-old Sprig, who wants everything her older sister Dakota has. But Dakota has it all - and does everything better, too - until a key year when Sprig's father is away and the class bully acts like a friend. A poignant, realistic story evolves.

Sure to be a comfort to little sisters and an enjoyable story for many young readers 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

It's not easy being a little sister. These days, for 10-year-old Sprig Ewing it's harder than ever. Her father is headed for Afghanistan, her elderly neighbor had a stroke and the biggest pest at school just may have a crush on her. To make matters worse, her sister Dakota won't stop teasing her. Sprig just wishes she could make Dakota disappear, and to make herself feel better, she imagines how she would do it. Sprig is the sensitive and sweet protagonist of Norma Fox Mazer's TEN WAYS TO MAKE MY SISTER DISAPPEAR.

Sprig imagines Dakota floating away on an Antarctic ice floe, melting into a puddle of water, being crumbled and tossed away like a piece of paper. Still, there is no way to avoid the fact that Dakota is in her life to stay. If only Dakota were a kinder big sister. Instead, Dakota takes a housesitting job that should have been Sprig's from Miss Ruthie next door and tells their dad all the news before Sprig can get on the phone to talk to him. Plus, Dakota allows snotty friend Krystee to make fun of Sprig without defending her. Sprig wishes she could have Judge Judy throw Dakota in the slammer (#2 on the list of ways to make her sister disappear).

Dakota is not really that bad of a sister at all --- it's just that, to the Ewing girls, the two years between them seem so vast. By the end of the book, they realize they are both struggling with the same things: concern for their neighbor, negotiating friendships with girls, trying to understand their changing relationships with boys, and especially, missing their father and worrying about his safety. They may not like each other all the time, but Sprig and Dakota love each other and learn they will be there for one another when it counts most.

Mazer's prose has a nice rhythm, and the dialogue feels authentic. Sprig is a gentle character but with a real resilience to her. TEN WAYS TO MAKE MY SISTER DISAPPEAR successfully explores sibling relationships but also touches lightly and earnestly on other topics such as the war in Afghanistan. This short novel is sure to be a comfort to little sisters and an enjoyable story for many young readers.

--- Reviewed by Sarah Rachel Egelman

Editorial Review:

Everything ten year-old Sprig wants, her older sister Dakota already has. Everything Sprig does, Dakota does better. And anytime Sprig complains, Dakota just grins and calls her a baby. It’s enough to make a kid wish her sister would disappear.

But in a year when Sprig’s father is away, her favorite neighbor is ill, and the class bully is acting almost like, well, a boyfriend, Sprig discovers that allies come in unexpected shapes. Sometimes they’re even related to you.

Good Night, Maman (Harper Trophy Books)

Norma Fox Mazer

List Price: $6.99 By: HarperCollins Amazon Marketplace: 98 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Ages 9-12 -> General
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Ages 9-12 -> General AAS
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Authors & Illustrators, A-Z -> ( M ) -> Mazer, Norma Fox

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 18 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Young readers who have loved and mourned Anne Frank's Diary of a Young Girl may take solace in the more hopeful ending of Good Night, Maman, Norma Fox Mazer's tender story of a brother and sister's escape from the Holocaust. Like all Jews in France during World War II, Karin and her older brother Marc are on the run from the Nazis. At first the siblings and their strong and gentle mother hide for more than a year in a tiny storage closet in a neighbor's house. But when the Jew Searches are intensified, they must leave, traveling on foot and only at night. At last Karin and Marc are lucky enough to find places on a ship bound for the United States, but Maman is too ill for the journey and must stay behind. At the refugee camp in Oswego, New York, Karin takes comfort in writing unmailed letter after letter to her mother, as she and Marc struggle to adjust to a new country, a new language, and each other's changing needs. Marc finally reveals that Maman is dead, a sad fact he has kept to himself to shelter his sister--to allow her to increase her own strength with the support of her mother's remembered presence.

Mazer based her novel on historical fact--the camp at Fort Ontario in Oswego was the only official shelter offered to European Jews by the United States. For a contrasting treatment of this same setting, teens will want to read Two Suns in the Sky, by Miriam Bat-Ami. (Ages 10 to 14) --Patty Campbell

B, My Names Is Bunny

Norma Fox Mazer

List Price: $3.25 By: Scholastic Amazon Marketplace: 65 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Ages 9-12 -> General
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Ages 9-12 -> General AAS
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Authors & Illustrators, A-Z -> ( M ) -> Mazer, Norma Fox

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

B, My Name is Bunny 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This Book is about a girl that meets a boy. But She doesn't like her name so she uses her friends name which is Emily.
Emily is one of Bunny's best friends. Then James is the guy that she met says that he wants to interview her. So they meet and when they meet they go to a resturant and he leans over and he kisses her. She could feel her face get really red.
A week after she goes to see her grandma. While she is there her grandma gets a stroke and falls of the chair. Bunny panicks and calls 911.
I liked this book because in some parts I thought were funny. But I also didn't like it because it was sad. I thought that instead of useing Emily's name she should use her own name even if it is a bad name.
In a rating of 5 stars i would give it an 4. I gave it a 4 because I thought it was a good book but it wasn't the best.

Editorial Review:

Bunny hates her name and tells the older boy she meets at a concert that her name is Emily (her best friend's name), sparking a fight between the girls which is resolved only when Bunny experiences a family crisis. Reissue.

The Missing Girl

Norma Fox Mazer

Amazon Price: $12.40 List Price: $16.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: HarperTeen Amazon Marketplace: 54 new & used starting at $2.47

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Authors & Illustrators, A-Z -> ( M ) -> Mazer, Norma Fox
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Literature -> Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery & Horror -> Mysteries, Espionage, & Detectives
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Literature -> Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery & Horror -> Spine-Chilling Horror

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Missed the Mark 3 out of 5 stars.
9 of 10 people found this review helpful.

The five Herbert sisters live their lives totally unaware of what is going on around them. They are each living out their own personal dramas totally self absorbed, that is until "the man" decides to treat them as his own personal flock of birds and follows their every move with disturbing fascination.

Told in a back and forth style you slowly see the predator mind calculate his next move and his justifications and the young girls are totally unaware of what is going on around them until it's too late and the inevitable takes place.

This book starts very slow and doesn't build steam until the very end which unfortunately is too late. The five sisters ranging in age from 17 to 11 all seem to have the same voice and it's hard to keep them and their ages straight. Billed as a YA psychological thriller, I unfortunately wouldn't call it either. It doesn't go in depth enough and I was more bored than thrilled.

Editorial Review:

He could be any man, any respectable, ordinary man.

But he's not.

This man watches the five Herbert girls—Beauty, Mim, Stevie, Fancy, and Autumn—with disturbing fascination.

Unaware of his scrutiny and his increasingly agitated and forbidden thoughts about them, the sisters go on with their ordinary everyday lives—planning, arguing, laughing, and crying—as if nothing bad could ever breach the safety of their family.

In alternating points of view, Norma Fox Mazer manages to interweave the lives of predator and prey in this unforgettable psychological thriller.

Junior Great Books (Series 4, Book One)

Madame de Villeneuve

By: The Great Books Foundation 2006 Amazon Marketplace: 8 new & used starting at $0.99

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Authors & Illustrators, A-Z -> ( M ) -> Mazer, Norma Fox
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Educational -> General AAS

A, My Name Is Ami

Norma Fox Mazer

List Price: $3.25 By: Apple Amazon Marketplace: 52 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Ages 9-12 -> General
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Ages 9-12 -> General AAS
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Authors & Illustrators, A-Z -> ( M ) -> Mazer, Norma Fox

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

An ok book, pretty interesting story of friendship. 3 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

A somewhat funny, interesting, very realistic story of two best friends, Ami and Mia. Definitely a girl's book, it talks about divorce, friendship, and boys.

this book was great! 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This is definitely a very cute book about two teenage best friends who tell everything to each other. From boys to divorce. This book is good for teens and I loved it!

Editorial Review:

As her parents go through a trial separation, Ami stays with her father and her brother, Fred, and with the help of her supportive best friend, Mia, she comes to terms with the changes in her life. Reissue. PW. SLJ.

When She Was Good

Norma Fox Mazer

Amazon Price: $6.99 List Price: $6.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Scholastic Paperbacks Amazon Marketplace: 155 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Authors & Illustrators, A-Z -> ( M ) -> Mazer, Norma Fox
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Literature -> General AAS
Subjects -> Children's Books -> People & Places -> Family Life -> Siblings -> Fiction

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 29 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Stark 4 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

I read this book in just a few hours. The main character (Em) just grabbed me and I couldn't help but keep reading. The book is written in a rather spontaneous way, bouncing between Em's inner thoughts, dialogue, and narration. Though a bit hard to follow, at times, this writing style allows the reader to really feel for Em.

This book is depressing and sad right from the first page. I found myself actually hoping the main character would give up. It was almost painful to read about Em's endless string of dissapointments. Day after day Em goes through the same routine. Where she finds hope is a mystery, but she finds it and she holds onto it.

What I like about this book is the 'realness' of it. Em is a believeable and pitiful character. Her situations are as likely as the sun rising. This is the story of someone who never had anything and never really finds anything. Again, I was almost hoping to read about how Em gave up or was killed or killed herself or was somehow taken out of her miserable life. But Em just keeps on living, her reasons known only to her.

I would certainly recommend this book, it is gripping. But be warned that this is not a happy story, not at the beginning and not at the end.

Editorial Review:

Em spent the first fourteen years of her life suffering her father's alcoholic rages and her mothr's silent depression, and the next three trapped with her abusive older sister Pamela. Now Pamela is dead and Em is alone at last. But will she be able to survive?

After the Rain

Norma Fox Mazer

Amazon Price: $5.99 List Price: $5.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: HarperTeen Amazon Marketplace: 269 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Authors & Illustrators, A-Z -> ( M ) -> Mazer, Norma Fox
Subjects -> Children's Books -> People & Places -> Family Life -> Multigenerational -> Fiction
Subjects -> Children's Books -> People & Places -> Social Issues -> Death & Dying -> Fiction

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 27 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Ashley's Review 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I liked this book because it was about family and I love it when my whole family gets together!
In this book a girl named Rachel misses her family because they don't live with or near her. The only person that she sees is her grandfather. They aren't that close. Rachel has to go with her mother to the doctors with her grandfather. They find out that her grandfather has a horrible disease. Rachel feels bad and decides to get closer to her grandfather. She does and ends up walking with him every day. After a month or two Rachel's grandfather gets put into the hospital. Rachel skips school just to visit him. After a while in the hospital, he dies.
I would recommend this book to anyone that likes a story about pulling your family together and learning about diseases.

Editorial Review:

At fifteen, Rachel is a worrier. She worries about whether her family understands her, whether her friends like her, and whether she'll get her first kiss before she turns sixteen. And she worries about whether she can handlehaving a real boyfriend if he does come along.

But it takes a dying old man -- her grandfather -- who has never been easy for anyone to handle, to show Rachel she has very special abilities. With love and compassion, she reaches the heart of an old tyrant who has always been unreachable. And in so doing, she comes to a better understanding of her family, her friends, and herself.

Has Anyone Seen My Emily Greene?

Norma Fox Mazer

Amazon Price: $12.79 List Price: $15.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Candlewick Amazon Marketplace: 46 new & used starting at $5.70

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Ages 4-8 -> Picture Books
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Ages 4-8 -> General
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Ages 4-8 -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Cute & entertaining 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I highly recommend this book. Both my 4 year old and my 2 1/2 year old love it. They like to hunt for Emily on each page and giggle at all the silly places her Daddy searches for her. This book has opened up a whole new level of play...hide and seek, that is, with the whole family.

Father and Daughter at Play 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Emily Greene is a wee girl who likes to hide. She is still small enough to believe that she is actually hidden from sight when she sits in a chair and covers herself with her blanket. She won't come to eat her lunch until she decides - loudly - to be "found."


The artist does an exceptional job of expanding the excellent rhyming text by depicting the first person narrator as a father. He plays along with his child in a very understanding way - not to mention his fine culinary skills. With large, loose drawings painted in bright colors, this easy -to-understand, gentle adventure with a happy ending is a perfect "lap book," for a toddler.

Editorial Review:

It's time for lunch, but where, oh, where is Emily Greene?

Readers will delight in searching for giggling Emily and in the warm relationship between this irrepressible little girl and her loving, good-humored father.

What I Believe

Norma Fox Mazer

Amazon Price: $6.95 List Price: $6.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Harcourt Paperbacks Amazon Marketplace: 52 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Authors & Illustrators, A-Z -> ( M ) -> Mazer, Norma Fox
Subjects -> Children's Books -> People & Places -> Family Life -> Parents -> Fiction
Subjects -> Children's Books -> People & Places -> Social Issues -> Homelessness & Poverty

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Timely and unique 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This story of children affected by a drastic change in their family's income is a unique and timely one. Teens who have gone or are going through the difficulties of massive transition precipitated by forces outside of their control will relate to Vicki's struggles.

Mazer's use of a breadth of poetic forms is impressive. Equally impressive, she doesn't compromise depth of feeling or characterization as she weaves her story from Vicki's poems and reflections. This book communicates -- originally and without didacticism -- that although everything doesn't always work out how we want it to, we can keep loving each other in all our imperfection. Admitting our errors is the only way to find peace and resolution. If we don't, we don't allow ourselves to receive the love and support we need from family and friends.

Sara, who becomes Vicki's new friend, is an especially likeable character, and one of my favorite poems in this book was "Sara Stuns Me with Three Questions." As a biracial person, I loved discovering a character whose looks belie her racial identity!

Mazer has delivered another solid book for young people that can be enjoyed by adults, too. Don't be surprised if you're inspired to try writing some poetry after reading What I Believe.

Editorial Review:

When Vicki's father is laid off from his job, everything changes. Her family moves to a city apartment, and Vicki has to forge a new path at her urban school. Worst of all, one night her depressed father simply disappears. Vicki soon finds herself living a double life--fine on the outside, anything but fine on the inside--and that leads to a moral dilemma she's ultimately forced to confront.