Books written by Nora Raleigh Baskin

The Summer Before Boys

Twelve-year-old best friends and relatives, Julia and Eliza are happy to spend the summer together while Julia's mother is serving in the National Guard in Iraq but when they meet a neighborhood boy, their close relationship begins to ...
Anything But Typical

My mother told the little voice, “Don't you think you should go sit with your mother?” “I'm autistic,” the little-girl voice said. ... It has nothing to do with what's going on. Inside the John F. Kennedy Airport, JFK, the sound is.
Subway Love

sheath and flat shoes, with her hair in a neat bob—a veritable, fashionable, and very conservative take on Jackie Kennedy. “Hey, sweetie,” her mother said. “Why aren't you watching television with everyone else?
Surfacing

“McDonald's!” A cheer rose. “Health food, here we come!” “Everybody has to give me their bonus points.” “Like hell.” “I'm getting two double cheeseburgers, and nobody can stop me.” And the girls piled off the bus with renewed energy.
Subway Love

Laura had been hoping for a McDonald's, where she knew over one million burgers had been served, and presumably that number would change when she ordered her hamburger to over one million and one burgers sold. Instead, they walked into ...
All We Know of Love

I can sit next to that large skinhead-looking guy picking at his cuticles; a really, really old lady who has that look of smelling like mothballs and menthol ointment; a man with a McDonald's bag on his lap and a hamburger in his hand; ...
Anything But Typical

MCDONALD'S TARGET CLOSED UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE KITCHENAID VOLKSWAGEN AITORO'S APPLIANCE STORE “Why is he writing all those meaningless words?” my grandmother said, my genius apparently lost on her. “Well, anyone can talk,” my ...
What Every (Girl Except Me) Knows: A Novel

Twelve-year-old Gabby feels that she needs a mother to help her grow into a woman, so when things between her father and his latest girlfriend do not work out, Gabby sets off for the last place she remembers seeing her own mother. Reprint.
Nine, Ten: A September 11 Story

Includes a reading group guide with discussion questions.
Ruby on the Outside

Eleven-year-old Ruby Danes has a real best friend for the first time ever, but agonizes over whether or not to tell her a secret she has never shared with anyone--that her mother has been in prison since Ruby was five--and over whether to ...
Consider the Octopus

Told in alternating voices, twelve-year-olds JB Barnes and Sidney Miller meet aboard a scientific research ship after JB is tasked to invite a renowned scientist named Sidney Miller and mistakenly invites a girl with the same name who will ...
The Summer Before Boys

Twelve-year-old best friends and relatives, Julia and Eliza are happy to spend the summer together while Julia's mother is serving in the National Guard in Iraq but when they meet a neighborhood boy, their close relationship begins to ...
The Truth About My Bat Mitzvah

I put my fingers up to my throat and touched the pointy Star of David, my grandmother's necklace, a delicate chain made up of countless tiny links.
Consider the Octopus

Nora Raleigh Baskin and Gae Polisner's Consider the Octopus is a comedy of errors, mistaken identity, and synchronicity.
Seven Clues to Home

"I truly loved it! Baskin and Polisner seamlessly unfold one touching relationship after another in this gorgeous story about everlasting friendship. This tender tale is indelibly etched on my heart.
All We Know of Love

We all use words over and over. It doesn't diminish their meaning. But I knew better, didn't I? Somebody is knocking softly on the bathroom door even though I am sure the VACANT sign slides to OCCUPIED when you lock the door.
The Summer Before Boys

In her follow-up to the award-winning Anything But Typical, Nora Baskin Raleigh has written a powerful, touching story about friendship, first love, and how the people who are farthest away from us are sometimes the ones we need the most.
The Summer Before Boys

For use in schools and libraries only.
The Summer Before Boys

A timely, touching story about two young girls in their last summer as best friends.
In the Company of Crazies

Troubled thirteen-year-old Mia Singer enrolls in the Mountain Laurel School for Alternative Education, where she learns a lot about herself by paying close attention to others.