Under the Haystack (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781475199109)

When her mother and her stepfather did not come home for dinner, Sandy had a sense of foreboding. But her mother had been late before, so Sandy hid her fears from her two younger sisters. Only later, getting up in the middle of the night and finding that her mother's clothes were gone, did she admit the horrible truth-they had been abandoned. Readers will be caught up in thirteen-year-old Sandy's attempt to shield her sisters from knowledge of the desertion and to keep them all together on their run-down, debt-ridden farm. She deceives the neighbors by inventing a sick aunt whom their mother is supposed to be visiting, earns small sums by doing odd jobs, and faces crises, big and small, with occasional help from her only friend, Joe. Her hard test of self-reliance comes at a time in her life when she is undergoing changes she longs to explore and think about-a time, too, when the mystery and thrill of first love unexpectedly come to her. Sandy's story is also one of life on an American farm hovering on the brink of poverty. "Under the Haystack" is a novel rich in family warmth, humor and sadness. Sandy, courageous and believable as she stand in uncertainty on the threshold of womanhood while trying to hold her family together, is a girl with whom readers can readily identify.

Author: P. A. Engebrecht
ISBN-10: 1475199104
ISBN-13: 9781475199109
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Language: English
Published: 08/26/2012
Pages: 128
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.40lbs
Size: 9.02h x 5.98w x 0.27d

About the Author
Pat Engebrecht grew up in the foothills of the Cascades in Oregon on a farm. She began writing seriously when challenged by an English professor who cited her work as some of the worse he had read! Under The Haystack was nominated for the Newbery Award, reviewed in the New York Times and Kirkus. A movie option was sold to a Canadian firm, Jodi Foster to play the lead. The option was not exercised. Ms. Engebrecht put aside her pen when she established her own construction firm, L&L Developers creating one of the first women-owned construction firms in Rochester, New York. She has taught tennis, platform tennis and writing. Presently she is the grandmother of nine, loves gardening and his resumed her writing career by forming her own company, Pat's Publishing partnering with CreateSpace/Amazon. She resides in Bradenton, Florida in the winter and Canandaigua Lake in New York.