Touch Blue Book

Touch Blue and your wish will come true.

"Why take chances?" says eleven-year-old Tess Brooks. "Especially when it’s so easy to let the universe know what you want by touching blue or turning around three times or crossing your fingers."

But Tess is coming to know that it’s not always that simple.

The state of Maine plans to shut down her island’s schoolhouse, which would force Tess’s family to move to the mainland--and Tess to leave the only home she has ever known. Fortunately, the islanders have a plan too: increase the numbers of students by having several families take in foster children. So now Tess and her family are taking a chance on Aaron, a thirteen-year-old trumpet player who has been bounced from home to home. And Tess needs a plan of her own--and all the luck she can muster. Will Tess’s wish come true or will her luck run out?

Newbery Honor author Cynthia Lord offers a warm-hearted, humorous, and thoughtful look at what it means to belong--and how lucky we feel when we do. Touch Blue, sure as certain, will touch your heart.

HONORS for RULES:

-Newbery Honor Book

-Schneider Family Book Award

-ALA Notable Book

-NYPL100 Titles for Reading and Sharing

-KidPost Book of the Week, Washington Post

-Notable Children's Book in the Language Arts (NCTE)

-2007 Mitten Award winner (Michigan Library Association)

-Nominated for more than 35 state Kids' Choice Awards (so far!): AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, FL, GA, HI, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, NE, NH, NJ, NM, NC, OH, OK, Pacific Northwest (voting together: Alaska, Alberta CA, British Columbia CA, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington), Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming.

Publishers Weekly

As she did in the Newbery Honor-winning Rules, Lord introduces a plucky, articulate girl from coastal Maine. When Tess's best friend's family moves away and there are no longer enough students to keep her island school open, her family is among those that offer to take in foster children to boost enrollment. Awaiting the arrival of Aaron, her teenage foster brother, Tess--an avid collector of good-luck talismans--is thrilled to find a piece of blue sea glass, since blue is especially lucky: "Touch blue and your wish will come true." Lord interlaces themes of loss, luck, superstition, family, and belonging, but at the heart of this tightly woven story is Tess's longing to help Aaron overcome his hurt and anger at having been taken from his alcoholic mother (years before) and shuffled among foster homes, and to make him feel like he's part of her close-knit family. His mother's unannounced appearance (at Tess's bold, clandestine invitation) at a talent show in which Aaron plays the trumpet adds tension and pathos to the finale of this stirring novel. Ages 9-12. (Aug.)