Applewhites at Wit's End

by Stephanie S. Tolan

Overview

Jack Semple and E.D. Applewhite are back, in this middle-grade sequel to Stephanie S. Tolan’s Newbery Honor Book Surviving the Applewhites.

Teenager E.D., the not so artistic, not at all eccentric member of the unconventional Applewhite clan, can't believe the plan her father has hatched to save the family from financial disaster. He’s decided to transform their rural North Carolina farm into a summer camp for creative children.

Soon the farm is packed with temperamental artists, out-of-control campers, and an even more out-of-control goat. It's all a little too much for structure-loving E.D., even before threatening notes begin appearing in the family mailbox. Together with Jake Semple—the boy who survived his first year in the Applewhites' home school—she's determined to save the camp and the family from disaster.

Like Carl Hiassan’s Chomp, Applewhites at Wit's End combines outrageous humor and the frustrations and joys of being part of a family.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780060579401
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	04/30/2013
Series:	Applewhites , #2
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.60(h) x 0.70(d)
Lexile:	780L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Stephanie S. Tolan is the author of more than twenty-five books for young readers, including Listen!, which won the Christopher Award and the Henry Bergh ASPCA Award. Her New York Times bestselling novel Surviving the Applewhites received a Newbery Honor and was named a Smithsonian Notable Children’s Book, a School Library Journal Best Book for Children, an ALA Booklist Editor’s Choice, an American Library Association Notable Children’s Book, and an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults. Tolan has left her home by the small lake in a big woods of North Carolina and now lives in the Hudson River Valley of upstate New York with a view of the Catskills Mountains and the prospect of wintertime cross country skiing. You can visit her online at www.stephanietolan.com.

Editorial Reviews

The Applewhites remain humorous, heartwarming and devoted to their respective crafts and each other.” — Kirkus Reviews

“The endearing family of freewheeling artists from Surviving the Applewhites returns for an encore that is cleverly plotted, emotionally satisfying, and highly entertaining. Tolan handles the large cast of characters with élan. Themes of creativity, individuality, and cooperation are explored as the roller-coaster plot unfolds and humorous moments abound.” — School Library Journal

Praise for SURVIVING THE APPLEWHITES “Tolan has pulled off something special here.” — Booklist (starred review)

Praise for SURVIVING THE APPLEWHITES: “This has terrific booktalk and read-aloud potential, and will help fill the need for humorous contemporary fiction.” — School Library Journal (starred review)

Praise for SURVIVING THE APPLEWHITES: “Humor abounds in the ever-building chaos.” — Publishers Weekly

Praise for SURVIVING THE APPLEWHITES: “The novel is pure fun.” — Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA) (starred review)

Praise for SURVIVING THE APPLEWHITES: “Reminiscent of the loud, loving, eccentric family in Kaufman and Hart’s You Can’t Take It With You, the Applewhites are brilliantly talented and wildly adverse to mainstream mentality.” — Kirkus Reviews

Praise for SURVIVING THE APPLEWHITES: “An engaging, satisfying, and entertaining romp.” — KLIATT

From the Publisher

Praise for SURVIVING THE APPLEWHITES “Tolan has pulled off something special here.

Booklist (starred review)

Props to Tolan for keeping the plates spinning and attempting what so few authors for young readers do: switching points of view. A fun time was had by all.

Booklist

Praise for SURVIVING THE APPLEWHITES: “The novel is pure fun.

Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA) (starred review)

Praise for SURVIVING THE APPLEWHITES: “An engaging, satisfying, and entertaining romp.

KLIATT

Praise for SURVIVING THE APPLEWHITES: “The novel is pure fun.

Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA) (Starred Review)

In Newbery Honor–winning Surviving the Applewhites (2002), Jake Semple, the big-city "bad kid," didn't know how he'd manage a year with that irrepressible clan. In this sequel Jake's back, but it's the Applewhites who don't know how or if they'll make it. Thanks to an embezzling financial manager, they're facing ruin. Theater-director dad Randolph decides to raise money by opening a creative-arts summer camp on their property, at which his uber-talented family will teach gifted kids. As with all of Randolph's plans, the family is initially skeptical. They pull together when it really counts, though, and soon things are humming and the stage is set for a rousing summer. Just a couple problems, though--threatening notes are turning up in the mailbox, and a mysterious stranger's nosing around. Organizational-genius daughter E.D. and Jake are on the case, eventually enlisting the aid of the rest of the family. Together with the campers, they devise an ingenious plot to foil the enemy in a satisfying, comical solution to a not-very-mystifying puzzle. The Applewhites remain humorous, heartwarming and devoted to their respective crafts and each other. The campers are fairly successfully realized, though most characterizations are superficial. Readers who liked the first book will appreciate this one, too, and the glimmerings of a few romances on the horizon will satisfy. (Fiction. 10-13)

Kirkus Reviews