Applewhites at Wit's End

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.

Can one organized girl, a reformed delinquent, and a camp full of quirky kids solve a mystery and save the family farm?

• An Eccentric Family: Meet the Applewhites, a clan of famous artists so creative they can't manage their own finances, much to the frustration of practical-minded E.D.
• A Summer Camp Adventure: When their farm becomes Camp Eureka!, it's up to E.D. and Jake to manage out-of-control campers, temperamental relatives, and one very, very bad-tempered goat.
• A Whodunit Mystery: Just as things reach peak chaos, threatening notes appear in the mailbox. Who wants the Applewhites to fail, and why?
• Found Family: Former troublemaker Jake Semple is back, and this time he's not just surviving the Applewhites--he's helping them survive.

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.