Publication Date: June 1, 2005 | Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up
Just when Abby thought middle school was safe...she stumbles on a mystery!
There's a thief on the loose in the sixth grade, and Abby and Hannah are determined to find out who's been taking their friends' most prized possessions. They assemble a list of suspects and piece clues together just like real detectives. But when Abby discovers the identity of the thief by accident, she wishes she'd never set out to crack the case. Now that she knows what she knows, Abby has to make a tough decision. Should she squeal on one friend or sit back while her others get hurt?
Quite a lot of Anne Mazer's writing education took place while she was unconscious. Her parents wanted desperately to become writers and made themselves get up at 4:00 a.m. Every morning in order to have writing time before their three young children awoke. The first thing Anne heard every day was two big, noisy electric typewriters. The furious sound of typing was her childhood wake-up music. During the day, her parents endlessly discussed ideas, plot, and character, and before she was seven years old, Anne knew about revisions, first and second drafts, and rejection slips. It was like growing up in a twenty four hour, seven day a week writer's boot camp.
In order to escape from her parents' obsession with writing, Anne turned to books. She was an avid reader from an early age and credits her love of reading for her writing career. Her favorite works were fantasy, fairy tales, historical fiction, humor, realistic fiction, and adventure. Her other interests were language, art, history, and science. At the age of twelve, she wanted to be an actress, a ballerina and a nuclear physicist. These careers were rapidly eliminated as she realized that a) she couldn't dance, b) she couldn't act; and c) she hated math.
Although at the time Anne thought writing was nothing but a nuisance, she now considers herself very lucky to have grown up with two aspiring writers. She learned a lot about discipline, perseverance and dedication to a craft from witnessing her parents' struggle. They eventually became successful and award-winning young adult novelists.
It took Anne a long time to figure out that she, too, wanted to be a writer. During early adulthood, she worked as an au pair, a bank teller, a pill bottle labeler, a receptionist, an English tutor, and an administrative assistant, as well as other jobs that she was ill-suited for. She attended three universities, spent several years in Paris, traveled throughout Europe, and worked in Boston and New York City.
Anne's "eureka" moment about writing came while she prepared a research report for one of her bosses. As she lovingly polished each sentence, and meticulously organized the paragraphs, she realized that no one really cared how beautifully she wrote about the latest models of air-conditioners. Except her, of course.
Using her parents' model of daily writing and discipline, she began to write. It took her seven years to publish her first book, a picture book inspired by her then two year old son, Max.
Anne is the mother of an adult son and daughter. Over the last twenty years, she has written over forty-five books for young readers. She has enough ideas to last for another quarter century and hopes that she will be writing for a very long time.
Fun Facts About Anne Mazer
* Her favorite foods are popcorn, rice pudding and blueberries. * When she was a kid, she would sometimes read up to ten books a day. * If she had magic powers, she'd choose invisibility. * She painted the rooms in her house yellow, orange, and violet. * One of her favorite childhood books was The Twilight of Magic, by Hugh Lofting. * When Anne was a teenager, her room was so messy that she needed a map to get from the door to the bed. (sort of) * In school Anne often flunked her favorite creative subjects, like writing and art.
3.0 out of 5 starsI hate this new conceited Abby!, May 23, 2005
A Kid's Review
This review is from: Now You See It, Now You Don't (Abby Hayes #15) (Paperback)
Abby suddenly cares only about herself and Simon. She isn't paying any attention to Hannah, Casey, Mason, or Bethany, and when Natalie suddenly starts acting nasty she doesn't even bother to find out why, or to help her friend. Also, she is way too crazy over Simon. I am 12 and nobody likes me and I don't like anybody. I love the old Abby Hayes, but now she's just weird. If I had a friend like her, I would be very upset about how mean she's acting. Have you noticed Simon backwards in "Nomis"? Like No Miss??? In other words, I DO NOT feel like I was missing out in the other books. I think Anne Mazer should just cool it with the crushes and make Abby more like her old self that everyone loves.
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This review is from: Now You See It, Now You Don't (Abby Hayes #15) (Paperback)
well i'm still a huge abby hayes fan but i'm still not really liking these "newer" ones. in the last 2 books abby has become interested in boys, which is fine, but has seem to lost interest in what she use to love to do. her friends aren't mentioned that much and her family is barely mentioned at all. i gave this book 4 stars cause it has improved from "its music to my ears." this one she finally quits the jazz tones and becomes more involved in writing. a suggestion for the next abby hayes books is that i want to here more about the hayes family and friends. i also want abby's adventures to be kind of like the ones in the beinning for the series!
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This review is from: Now You See It, Now You Don't (Abby Hayes #15) (Paperback)
This is a really great book! It's about when Abby's in 6th grade and there is a thief on the loose! She still has a crush on Simon, and she has a chose of either staying with the Jazz Tones to still see Simon, or join the school newspaper. She decides to join the paper, and there's so much to think about when one of her things gets stolen to! If you like adventure, this is the perfect book to read.
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