Have you heard the one about Grandpa walking through three feet of snow—uphill both ways—just to get home when he was a kid?
Well, you haven't heard it like this!
During one sudden and relentless blizzard, lively Walt gets stuck for days in a barn by himself. "Awful!"
Meanwhile, shy Fred is trapped in an inn full of people. "Horrible!"
They both have to dig their way out. "The worst." "You said it."
What a terrible storm! But what a terrific—and funny—story!

Terrible Storm

Children's Books

Hurst, Carol Otis

Literature & Fiction

Greenwillow Books

Have you heard the one about Grandpa walking through three feet of snow—uphill both ways—just to get home when he was a kid? Well, you haven't heard it like this! During one sudden and relentless blizzard, lively Walt gets stuck for days in a barn by himself. "Awful!" Meanwhile, shy Fred is trapped in an inn full of people. "Horrible!" They both have to dig their way out. "The worst." "You said it." What a terrible storm! But what a terrific—and funny—story!

Harpercollins

Some people collect stamps. Other people collect coins. Carol Otis Hurst's father collected rocks. Nobody ever thought his obsession would amount to anything. They said, "You've got rocks in your head" and "There's no money in rocks." But year after year he kept on collecting, trading, displaying, and labeling his rocks. The Depression forced the family to sell their gas station and their house, but his interest in rocks never wavered. And in the end the science museum he had visited so often realized that a person with rocks in his head was just what was needed.
Anyone who has ever felt a little out of step with the world will identify with this true story of a man who followed his heart and his passion.

Rocks in His Head (Avenues)

Biographies

Rocks in His Head

Etta and her brother and sister, wards of the state of Massachusetts in 1840, have been parceled off to separate foster homes. Determined to gather her family back together and create a secure home for herself and her siblings, Etta has run away from the last in a long string of foster homes, resolved to find a place where they can live as a family. In her search, she encounters Walter, a young runaway who is hiding out from his alcoholic father in a cabin on the New Haven and Northampton Canal. Before she can get her own family together, Etta gets caught up in Walter’s problems, which include the transportation of a body up a mountain in the dead of night, convincing the canal company to hire them as a security team, and catching the vandals who are determined to sabotage the canal.

Through the Lock

Teen & Young Adult

Hurst, Carol

HMH Books for Young Readers

When Sarah’s father leaves their Massachusetts farm to prospect for gold in California, even his stories of riches and adventure can’t console her. In his absence, Sarah chafes against her mother’s cold demeanor and strict discipline, and at times it doesn’t seem like anyone misses her fun-loving father the way she does. But she must put her feelings aside and work hard to help keep the farm running. From a scraped knee to a barn fire, Sarah faces each challenge, each crisis, with courage, determination, and good sense. Through her ordeals, Sarah comes to appreciate her mother’s strength and perseverance and recognize the price the family has had to pay for her father’s follies.

In Plain Sight

There had never before been a murder in Plymouth colony. In a community founded on such high ideals and strong principles, the very idea was unthinkable, but the facts were undeniable: John Newcomen had been shot and killed by someone. But by whom? When Governor William Bradford voices his suspicion of John Billington, somewhat of an outsider whose penchant for public drunkenness makes him an easy scapegoat, his own son rushes to the man’s defense. Twelve-year-old John Bradford understands what it’s like to live outside of his father’s good graces. It seems to him that every little mistake earns a harsh reprimand, but nothing he could ever do would win his father’s approval. This historical novel brings together the drama of a murder mystery and the complexities of the relationship between a father and his son to provide a glimpse of what life might have been like growing up in the young colony as it too struggled to determine its course and its identity.

A Killing in Plymouth Colony

Otis, Rebecca

Times were tough for the Spencer family. After their father died, Kate, Jesse, and their adopted sister, Sookan, had to move with their mother from Brooklyn to a dilapidated farmhouse in western Massachusetts. Everyone except Sookan hated it; she hadn’t lived in Brooklyn long enough to miss the house there, but the rest of them hoped the move would be only temporary. But Mrs. Spencer’s business is slow to get off the ground, and the repairs to the house are expensive, so finances are tight. Suddenly they’re facing the possibility of losing their rundown farmhouse, too. Then Jesse discovers an old doll hidden up in the barn rafters. Despite Sookan’s cryptic protests that it’s the wrong one, they all hope its sale could bring in some much-needed cash. But when an eerie blue light appears, odd things begin to happen—things it touches become cold, TVs turn themselves on, objects show up in unusual places—even homework problems are solved! Could the blue light be a ghost? What other secrets does the old farmhouse hold? As Kate, Jesse, and Sookan try to solve these mysteries and adjust to their new life, they may just find the real treasure they are looking for—a place to call home.

The Wrong One

Action & Adventure

Clarion Books

Charlotte was a Yankee and Maggie was Irish. In 1850’s Westfield their budding friendship was a problem. Charlotte listened as suppertime conversations became heated debates. Even her Aunt Lucy and her brother Zach were full of venom toward the Irish. As tensions between the two communities rose, rumors began to fly, and fists soon followed.Author Carol Otis Hurst captures this volatile time in American history through the unlikely friendship between two girls from opposing sides, revealing the ignorance and prejudice that threatened to erupt into violence and overwhelm New England communities, and indeed the whole country, on the eve of the Civil War.

Torchlight

In the winter of 1920, everything changed. Frank and his family got a Model T and drove to the Berkshires to try to make a success of a vacation/hunting lodge at Yokum Pond. There are fun adventures and incidents with invited guests and uninvited animal visitors, including the mysterious “horrible huge.” The rural setting and less-than-receptive neighbors fail to deter Frank’s mother from pursuing her fight for suffrage, much to the consternation of her husband and a number of the lodge’s guests, but in the end, she sees Tennessee ratify the amendment and earns a place of reverence in the movement.

You Come to Yokum

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

Books by Hurst, Carol Otis

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

Terrible Storm

Terrible Storm

Rocks in His Head (Avenues)

Rocks in His Head

Through the Lock

In Plain Sight

A Killing in Plymouth Colony

The Wrong One

Torchlight

You Come to Yokum