PAT LOWERY COLLINS

I AM A DANCER
Life is full of opportunities to dance. Whenever you skip stairs, jump like a frog, sway to the tune in your head, or try to fly like a bird, you're moving just the way a dancer does.

COME OUT COME OUT
As Hildy knows,hide-and-seek can be more than just a game. It's knowing that sometimes the best way to be noticed is to disappear altogether. And even more than being found, it's being missed that matters most.

THE FATTENING HUT
Helen doesn't want to stay in the fattening hut. She's told her mother that she's too young, not ready for it. Why must she marry so soon? She doesn't want to gorge on rich meals for months—until she is round and heavy, like a good bride should be. Just like her mother and sister before her, just like all the women of her tribe. When she finds out the terrible secret the fattening hut harbors, she becomes even more confused and defiant. Lonely, scared, and feeling hemmed in by family, by culture, and by tradition, Helen fights for the chance to be educated, young, and free.

SCHOONER
Through journal entries and realistic illustrations SCHOONER tells the tale of Essex shipbuilders in action and of a young boy who watched as a mighty vessel rose from keel to spars.

JUST IMAGINE
Mary Francis's world is split in two when her father loses his job in California during the Great Depression and finds another one in Hardenville, MA. Unwilling to give up her dreams of a film career for her son, Leland, Mary Francis's mother refuses to leave their home in Beverly Hills. So Mary Francis, her father, and grandmother go on to New England without them. Determined to keep an eye on the other half of her family, Mary Francis works on 'her gift,' the ability to have "out-of-body" experiences. She hopes to get so good at it that she'll be able to travel to California to check on her mother and Leland. While Mary Fancis practices her developing talent, her parents become more estranged, and she begins to fear they'll never all be living in the same place agan.

SIGNS & WONDERS
"Tucked away at boarding school, fourteen-year-old Taswell is undergoing an extraordinary transformation. She knows it's important, but she's not sure how to deal with it and who she should tell. . .certainly not her distant grandmother, who's busy with work, or her father who has a new and pregnant wife. Isolated from friends and family, she looks for help and advice in surprising places.

As Taswell discovers more about herself and the people around her, she ultimately finds salvation where she least expects it. Told entirely in letters, this startlingly original novel about a search for love and family is both heartbreaking and hilarious."
(jacket copy)

I AM AN ARTIST
Through a simple text and lovely quiet illustrations, the reader is shown how the creative process begins long before paint is put on paper or words are written. It is a process in which we can all participate.

WAITING FOR BABY JOE
When a much anticipated birth of a sibling comes sooner than expected, a brother or sister can be confused and feel neglected. Through this sensitive text and clear black and white photographs, young children in a similar predicament will find recognition of their feelings and fears.

THE QUIET WOMAN WAKES UP SHOUTING
A chapbook in the Folly Cove Books series which features poets living and writing on Cape Ann, MA.

These poems are highly visual. Many draw inspiration from the ocean; some are memory based.