Showing results by author "Catherine Ryan Hyde" in All Categories

Former Broadway dancer and current agoraphobic Billy Shine has not set foot outside his apartment in almost a decade. He has glimpsed his neighbors--beautiful manicurist Rayleen, lonely old Ms. Hinman, bigoted and angry Mr. Lafferty, kind-hearted Felipe, and nine-year-old Grace and her former addict mother, Eileen. But most of them have never seen Billy. Not until Grace begins to sit outside on the building's front stoop for hours every day, inches from Billy's patio.

Roseanna Chaldecott spent her life as a high-powered lawyer in Manhattan. But when her best friend and law partner dies suddenly, something snaps. Unsure of her future, Roseanna heads upstate on one tank of gas and with no plans to return. In the foothills of the Adirondacks, Roseanna discovers the perfect hideout in a ramshackle farm. Its seventy-six acres are rich with possibilities and full of surprises, including a mother and daughter squatting on the property. Although company is the last thing Roseanna wants, she reluctantly lets them stay.

Never knowing his parents, eleven-year-old Stewie Little and his brother have been raised on a farm by their older sister. Stewie steadfastly tends the chickens left by his beloved late grandmother. And every day Stewie goes door to door selling fresh eggs from his wagon—a routine with a surprise just around the corner. It’s his new customer, Marilyn. She’s prickly and guarded, yet comfortably familiar—she reminds the grieving Stewie so much of the grandmother he misses more than he can express.

If 16-year-old Carly and 11-year-old Jen can find Teddy, Carly knows he’ll save them from foster care...if he can forgive them for their mother’s vicious lies about him. But when the starving girls get caught stealing food on a Native American reservation, their journey gets put on hold. And after Jen makes a heartbreaking confession, Carly wonders if they’ll ever escape the pain of the past. Set against the backdrop of the American Southwest, Walk Me Home and its resilient heroines will inspire listeners and renew their faith in recovery and redemption.

Bea has barely been scraping by since her husband died. After falling for a telephone scam, she loses everything and is forced to abandon her trailer. With only two-thirds of a tank in her old van, she heads toward the Pacific Ocean with her cat - on a mission to reclaim what's rightfully hers, even if it means making others pay for what she lost.

In the summer of 1969, 14-year-old Lucas Painter carries a huge weight on his shoulders. His brother is fighting in Vietnam. His embattled parents are locked in a never-ending war. And his best friend, Connor, is struggling with his own family issues. To find relief from the chaos, Lucas takes long, meandering walks, and one day he veers into the woods.

Raymond Jaffe feels like he doesn’t belong. Not with his mother’s new family. Not as a weekend guest with his father and his father’s wife. Not at school, where he’s an outcast. After his best friend moves away, Raymond has only two real connections: to the feral cat he’s tamed and to a blind ninety-two-year-old woman in his building who’s introduced herself with a curious question: Have you seen Luis Velez?

August Shroeder, a burned-out teacher, has been sober since his 19-year-old son died. Every year he’s spent the summer on the road, but making it to Yellowstone this year means everything. The plan had been to travel there with his son, but now August is making the trip with Philip’s ashes instead. An unexpected twist of fate lands August with two extra passengers for his journey, two half-orphans with nowhere else to go. What none of them could have known was how transformative both the trip - and the bonds that develop between them- would prove....

1941. Steven Katz is the son of prosperous landowners in rural California. Although his parents don’t approve, he’s found true friends in Nick, Suki, and Ollie, sons of field workers. The group is inseparable. But Steven is in turmoil. He’s beginning to acknowledge that his feelings for Nick amount to more than friendship. When the bombing of Pearl Harbor draws the US into World War II, Suki and his family are forced to leave their home for the internment camp at Manzanar. Ollie enlists in the army and ships out. And Nick must flee.

Pay It Forward, is the moving story of Trevor McKinney, a 12-year-old boy who accepts his social studies teacher’s challenge to come up with a plan to change the world. Trevor’s idea is simple: Do a good deed for three people and ask them to "pay it forward" to three others who need help. He envisions a vast movement of kindness and goodwill spreading beyond his small California town and across the world.

Out there is chaos, the collapse of society, and so much to be afraid of. All that matters is freedom. That’s what Remy Blake has been taught by his survivalist father. Raised off the grid in the middle of nowhere, his own survival skills not yet honed, Remy is days shy of his eighth birthday when his father unexpectedly dies. As seasons pass, supplies run out, and fending for himself grows more desperate, Remy sets out on foot, unprepared for the great unknown of civilization.

Michael Woodbine was seven years old when a near-fatal fireworks accident scarred him and led to his placement in foster care. Now a college freshman, he is still trying to hide the effects of his trauma from his classmates, his adoptive family, and himself. When Michael signs up for a film class, he meets Robert Dunning, a teacher who wears his own scars unapologetically. Robert encourages Michael to make a documentary that explores body image and self-perception.

Lewis Madigan is young, gay, out of work, and getting antsy when he’s roped into providing end-of-life care for his insufferable homophobic neighbor, Chester Wheeler. Lewis doesn’t need the aggravation, just the money. The only requirements: run errands, be on call, and put up with a miserable old churl no one else in Buffalo can bear. After exchanging barbs, bickering, baiting, and pushing buttons, Chester hits Lewis with the big ask. Lewis can’t say no to a dying wish.

Pay It Forward is a wondrous and moving story about Trevor McKinney, a 12-year-old boy in a small California town who accepts the challenge that his teacher gives his class, a chance to earn extra credit by coming up with a plan to change the world for the better - and to put that plan into action.

Ella Ginsberg's brother, Simon, has disappeared. His clothing, shoes, and watch were found abandoned near a freight line track in Central California. His jockey shorts and wallet were never found. The police have no clue, and Simon's wife had no warning that anything was wrong. Ella takes off on foot across much of California and Arizona, thinking she can find Simon using nothing but her knowledge of the way he might think. Her search leads her to the Navajo Nation in Arizona.

By Catherine Ryan Hyde, the best-selling author of Don't Let Me Go and Pay It Forward, this entertaining and life-affirming collection of autobiographical stories explores the rewards and challenges of building a happy life of self-knowledge and creative inspiration, from a writer who has been through it all.

Grace, dieci anni, vive nella periferia degradata di Los Angeles con una madre tossicodipendente che la trascura e il rischio di essere affidata ai servizi sociali. C'è solo una persona che può aiutarla a uscire fuori da questa situazione e donarle una nuova speranza: Billy Shine, il suo vicino di casa. Un tempo ballerino di Broadway, Billy è ora un uomo solitario, in preda a continui attacchi di panico, spaventato dalla gente e dal mondo fuori le quattro mura della sua casa.

Leonard is an eerily wise five-year-old boy with the ability to captivate everyone he meets. Pearl is Leonard's devoted teenage mother, desperately trying to hide a violent secret from her past. Mitch is Leonard's 25-year-old next-door neighbour. One day, Pearl drops Leonard off with Mitch, and never returns. As truth and fiction, memory and dreams collide, Mitch finds himself learning from a surprising source the true, magical definition of love.

Der neue berührende Roman von Bestsellerautorin Catherine Ryan Hyde. Die resolute Witwe Bea kommt finanziell gerade so über die Runden, bis sie einem Betrug zum Opfer fällt und plötzlich alles verliert. Entschlossen begibt sie sich in ihrem alten Lieferwagen auf die Reise, um sich das zurückzuholen, was ihr gehört - koste es, was es wolle. Unterdessen muss die aus gutem Hause kommende Allie mit ansehen, wie ihre Eltern wegen Steuerhinterziehung verhaftet werden. Daraufhin landet sie in einer Wohngruppe für Jugendliche und versucht verzweifelt, sich in ihrer neuen Realität zurechtzufinden.

Als Nathan McCann ein halbvergrabenes Baby im Wald findet, geht er davon aus, dass es tot ist. Doch dann bewegt es sich, und in einem einzigen kurzen Moment ändert sich Nathans Leben für immer. Der kleine Junge wird zu seiner Großmutter geschickt, um bei ihr aufzuwachsen, aber Nathan kann ihn nicht vergessen, und er stattet der alten Frau einen Besuch ab. Er bittet um ein einfaches Versprechen: dass sie Nathan irgendwann dem Jungen vorstellen und ihm erzählen wird, dass er der Mann ist, der ihn im Wald gefunden hat.