D. Anne Love

FROM AMAZON: It's the middle of summer in Mirabeau, Texas, but already Garnet Hubbard looks forward to fall -- to entering seventh grade and becoming a teenager at last. With Opal, her beautiful and popular fourteen-year-old sister, as her guide, Garnet is sure to have a great year. But everything changes when their mother, Melanie, packs them up and heads for Nashville, determined to fulfill her lifelong dream of becoming a country singer. Almost before they know it, Melanie drops the girls at her sister's house in Oklahoma, assuring them she'll be back just as soon as she's settled in Tennessee. But when a few days turn into a few weeks and beyond, with no Melanie in sight, the girls begin to realize what has happened.

While Opal soon becomes one of the most popular girls in school, her younger sister struggles. For Garnet, getting used to her new life means trying to figure out how to have pride in herself when it seems she has little to offer the world and the odds are stacked against her. With only each other to lean on, Melanie's "precious gems" must learn to live with the hand they've been dealt and to accept the changing face of their family.

Set in the early 1960s and beautifully told by D. Anne Love, Semiprecious is a powerful, poignant, and often funny coming-of-age novel that will stay with readers long after the turn of the final page.… (more)

From the book back cover:

"Caroline and Jess don't know what to make of their prim and proper grandmother. She's traveled all the way from South Carolina to the Dakota prairie to help out while their pa recovers from a serious accident. Caroline and Jess must call her Mrs. Ravenell instead of Grandmother. They can't believe this stern woman is the mother of their own loving mama, who died just last year. But little by little, as they face spring planting, a prairie tornado, and their shared grief, Caroline sees just what kinds of woman her grandmother really is."… (more)

Of Numbers and Stars is a great book for students to see that even women can also be interested in philosophy, mathematics, and sciences. It also shows that women can become elite scholars and go to schools that help in the learning of philosophy, mathematics, and science. I would recommend this book to also teach what it was like to be a girl back in the ancient times. I would use this book for grades that are older. One of the parts that I enjoyed was how encouraging her father was towards her studies. It shows students that they should also be encouraging towards minority groups that are sometimes told they need to stick to certain roles.… (more)