The Reappearance Sam Webber

Literature & Fiction

Fuqua, Jonathon Scott

Genre Fiction

Demco Media

Catie Calloway’s family has moved a lot, which is rough on an only child. When Catie finds herself in another new city and another new school, she is glad to meet Josephine, a girl who appears in the big old house that is her family’s new home. With a relationship founded in loneliness, the two girls are immediately drawn to each other and happy to have each finally found a best friend. Catie’s parents, however, are beginning to question their daughter’s odd behavior. To them, it appears she hasn’t a friend in the world, and sending her away to summer camp seems to be the only answer. Unless, of course, Catie can come up with a new friend fast.

Catie and Josephine

Children's Books

Steven Parke

HMH Books for Young Readers

Darby Carmichael decides that she wants to become a newspaper girl and tell the truth about how life is, for all the world to read. Soon, her little column in The Marlboro Herald Advocate is famous in her home town and beyond. But is Marlboro County ready for what she has to tell?

Darby

Walker Books

Jonathon Scott Fuqua vividly evokes life in a small Southern town in this powerful story of friendship, race, and learning to trust your own voice—in a world that doesn’t always welcome what you have to say. "From my back porch, I can see where my best friend lives. Evette’s tenant house sits on my daddy’s property . . . but on account of her being black and me being white, she hardly ever comes in my house, and I don’t go in hers. My daddy says that’s just the way it is." Darby Carmichael thinks her best friend is probably the smartest person she knows, even though, as Mama says, Evette’s school uses worn-out books and crumbly chalk. Whenever they can, Darby and Evette shoot off into the woods beyond the farm to play at being fancy ladies and schoolteachers. One thing Darby has never dreamed of being - not until Evette suggests it - is a newspaper girl who writes down the truth for all to read. In no time, and with more than a little assistance from Evette, Darby and her column in the Bennettsville Times are famous in town and beyond. But is Marlboro County, South Carolina, circa 1926, ready for the truth its youngest reporter has to tell?

Candlewick

King of the Pygmies

When a teenage boy begins to hear voices, his uncle offers him an alternative explanation in this poignant, provocative novel from award-winning author Jonathon Scott Fuqua. Havre-de-Grace, Maryland isn't the kind of place where miracles happen. That's why when fifteen-year-old Penn starts to hear voices, he is terrified. These aren't just any voices, though — they are the thoughts of people close to him. He can hear his parents' unspoken gripes with each other. He can hear his retarded brother's silent anxieties. He can hear his neighbor's descent into quiet desperation. And he can hear his girlfriend's tentative feelings of tenderness. His momma wants him to go to a therapist to get treated for schizophrenia, but his similarly gifted Uncle Hewitt, a former police chief turned town drunk, tells him the truth: Penn's ability to hear other people's thoughts and take away their pain doesn't make him sick. It makes him special. From the acclaimed author of The Willoughby Spit Wonder, Darby, and The Reappearance of Sam Webber comes a compelling story of a young man's struggle to come to terms with his disability — a novel of courage, determination, and hope.

Jonathon Scott Fuqua’s work of fiction has already proven itself as a literary achievement by earning several influential honors, including the prestigious ALA 2000 Alex award. Evoking a child’s struggle to triumph over fear and despair, it explores the complex issues of race and class in the "fading light" of Baltimore. This debut novel will strike as powerful a chord with young readers as it has with adults. The protagonist, eleven-year-old Sam Webber, has been called "Little Sam" his whole life. But now Big Sam has disappeared, perhaps for good. Without his dad, Little Sam is just plain "Samuel"—and lonely. When he and his mom have to move from their comfortable Baltimore home to a rough inner-city neighborhood, he has plenty to be afraid of: the depression that seems to be engulfing his mother, the taunts of a middle-school bully, his own grief, and bouts of nausea and hyperventilation. But when Greely, the janitor at his school, strikes up an unlikely friendship, Sam begins to see his life—like the varied row houses of his new neighborhood—in a gentler light. Will a surer, stronger Sam Webber emerge from the shadows?

The Reappearance of Sam Webber

Growing Up & Facts of Life

In a poignant story of a family struggling against loss — and a boy who would be a superhero — Jonathon Scott Fuqua evokes, in rich detail, the long-ago era of the 1950s. He looked at her. "Minnie, have you ever wondered if maybe Mom’s from Atlantis? We’ve only seen her parents twice, ever, and her dad looked funny and had to breathe out of that mask. See what I mean? Have you ever thought of that?" It’s 1953 and the Korean War is over, but Carter Johnston loves to watch the navy bombers come and go, their great gray bodies skimming the waters of Chesapeake Bay as they guard against the Communist threat. With his family facing a threat of a different kind, Carter dreams of being a superhero. Could he be like the Sub-Mariner, and become the Boy Who Swam Across Hampton Roads, the Willoughby Spit Wonder? Carter’s sister, Minnie, says he’ll get himself killed, but Carter needs to show their ailing father that success comes to those who try. If his dad wants to stay alive as badly as Carter wants to be like the Sub-Mariner, it can happen. Can’t it?

The Willoughby Spit Wonder

"Darby's first-person narrative is frank and immediate . . . expressing what it's like for an ordinary white kid who suddenly discovers evil — and courage — where she lives." — Booklist Darby Carmichael thinks her best friend is probably the smartest person she knows, even though, as Mama says, Evette’s school uses worn-out books and crumbly chalk. Whenever they can, Darby and Evette shoot off into the woods beyond the farm to play at being fancy ladies and schoolteachers. One thing Darby has never dreamed of being — not until Evette suggests it — is a newspaper girl who writes down the truth for all to read. In no time, and with more than a little assistance from Evette, Darby and her column in the Bennettsville Times are famous in town and beyond. But is Marlboro County, South Carolina, circa 1926, ready for the truth its youngest reporter has to tell?

"This treatment of mental illness from the viewpoint of someone experiencing it is also a compellingly, fluidly written study of an individual." — BULLETIN OF THE CENTER FOR CHILDREN'S BOOKS When fifteen-year-old Penn starts to hear voices, he is terrified. He can hear his parents’ unspoken gripes, his retarded brother’s anxieties, and his neighbor’s desperation. His mother wants him to get treated for schizophrenia, but his similarly gifted uncle tells him that hearing others’ thoughts doesn’t make him sick; it makes him special. This compelling novel of a young man’s struggle to come to terms with his disability is a tale of courage, determination, and hope.

Teen & Young Adult

In fine line drawings, this work shows the detailed facades and interiors of rowhouses which are still standing in Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington D.C. They range from the late 1700s to the mid 1900s, in architectural styles from Georgian to Edwardian, encompassing Federal, Greek Revival, Early and High Victorian, Beaux Arts and Vernacular. They include a number of composites and adaptations, and are a valuable source study for those interested in design, architecture or the social history of urban living in the United States.

American Rowhouse Classic Designs (International Design Library)

Arts & Photography

Architecture

Stemmer House Publishers

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Fuqua, Jonathon Scott. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Fuqua, Jonathon Scott

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Fuqua, Jonathon Scott. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Reappearance Sam Webber

Catie and Josephine

Darby

Darby

King of the Pygmies

The Reappearance of Sam Webber

The Willoughby Spit Wonder

Darby

King of the Pygmies

American Rowhouse Classic Designs (International Design Library)