The Year of the Book

Andrea Cheng

Mei 2012 · HarperCollins

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In Chinese, peng you means friend. But in any language, all Anna knows for certain is that friendship is complicated.

When Anna needs company, she turns to her books. Whether traveling through A Wrinkle in Time, or peering over My Side of the Mountain, books provide what real life cannot—constant companionship and insight into her changing world.

Books, however, can’t tell Anna how to find a true friend. She’ll have to discover that on her own. In the tradition of classics like Maud Hart Lovelace’s Betsy-Tacy books and Eleanor Estes’ One Hundred Dresses, this novel subtly explores what it takes to make friends and what it means to be one.

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Andrea Cheng was born on September 19, 1957. After receiving a BA in English from Cornell University, she went to Switzerland, where she apprenticed to a bookbinder, attended a school of bookbinding called The Centro del Bel Libro, and learned French. Upon her return, she received an MS in linguistics from Cornell University. She taught English as a Second Language and children's literature at Cincinnati State Technical and Community College. She was a children's author and illustrator. Her books included Grandfather Counts, Marika, The Key Collection, Honeysuckle House, Where the Steps Were, The Bear Makers, Brushing Mom's Hair, and the Year of... chapter book series. She died after a long illness on December 26, 2015 at the age of 58. Abigail Halpin is the talented illustrator of several chapter books including Maybe Yes, Maybe No, Maybe Maybe (Simon & Schuster/Aladdin, 2009), cover artwork for Emma Jean Lazarus Fell In Love (Puffin Books, 2010), The Melancholic Mermaid (Simply Read Books, 2010), Penny Dreadful (Random House, 2010) and The Grand Plan to Fix Everything (Simon & Schuster/Atheneum, Spring 2011). Both illustrator and graphic designer, she lives in New England, a stone’s throw from the Maine coastline. See her artwork at: http://www.theodesign.com/.