Crunch (19 page)

LESLIE CONNOR
has her own memories of the energy crunch of the seventies, and she got to thinking: What comes after the long lines at the pumps? What if the earth’s supply of gasoline were to finally run out? She tried to imagine what it would look like: “I saw bicycles. And I saw them taking to the highways. I also saw a changing value of goods and services. Then Dewey showed up on my shoulder to tell the story of these kids home alone, trying to keep up with operating a busy bike-repair shop and coping with the unfamiliar condition of suddenly having something everybody else wants.” Leslie is the author of many award-winning books for children, including
WAITING FOR NORMAL
, winner of the ALA Schneider Family Book Award,
MISS BRIDIE CHOSE A SHOVEL
, and
DEAD ON TOWN LINE
, a young-adult novel in verse. She lives with her family in Connecticut.

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Waiting for Normal

Jacket art © 2010 by Greg Swearingen

CRUNCH
. Copyright © 2010 by Leslie Connor. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Connor, Leslie.

Crunch / Leslie Connor.—1st ed.

p.   cm.

Summary: Fourteen-year-old Dewey Marriss juggles the management of the family’s bicycle repair business while sharing the household and farm duties with his siblings when a sudden energy crisis leaves their parents stranded far from home.

ISBN 978-0-06-169229-1 (trade bdg.)

ISBN 978-0-06-169233-8 (lib. bdg.)

[1. Self-reliance—Fiction. 2. Coming of age—Fiction. 3. Brothers and sisters—Fiction. 4. Family problems—Fiction. 5. Bicycles and bicycling—Fiction. 6. Business enterprises—Fiction. 7. Energy conservation—Fiction.] I. Title.

PZ7.C76442 Cr 2010        2009024339

[Fic]—dc22        CIP

AC

EPub Edition © January 2010 ISBN: 978-0-06-199835-5

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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