Crazy Fish [Paperback]

Eleven-year-old Joyce lives with her reclusive uncle, Old Dad, who runs the town garbage dump--which is why the kids at school call her the Dump Queen. Her only friend is Mrs. Fish, the new school custodian whose wild outfits and uninhibited personality inspire her nickname, Crazy Fish. When Mrs. Fish is around, everything in Joyce's life seems okay. So when fiercely independent Old Dad falls ill, Joyce must convince him to accept her friend's help.

A lonely girl tries to forge a connection between her father and her only friend, a woman nicknamed Crazy Fish.

The most imaginative and impressive novel of Norma Fox Mazer's award-winning career. --Publishers Weekly

Mazer is one of the best of the practitioners writing for young people today. --The New York Times

NORMA FOX MAZERis an award-winning novelist and a faculty member for the Vermont College MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults Program. Her many awards include a Newbery Honor, a Christopher Award, an Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Juvenile Mystery, and a National Book Award nomination, among others. She lives in Montpelier, Vermont.

1 
At Home with Old Dad 
 
Old Dad, I said, if I didnt go to school, I could help you every day. Old Dad didnt say anything. You listening? Isaid,if I didnt go to school
 
           He put down his coffee cup. Heard you, he growled. His voice was always rough, growly, as if he had thorns in his throat. Youre going to school, Joyce.
 
           Give me one good reason! I hated school. It was starting again in four days. Why do I have to go? All summer Id been happy with Old Dad.
 
           Same reason I told you last year, and year before, and lC©