Bustard, Anne

In 1964 in Totter, Texas, Magnolia Jean Crook--an aspiring detective and a firm believer in UFOs--is desperate to protect her grandmother Mimi against accusations of theft, especially when Mimi's recent memory lapses may signal something serious.

The war ended three years ago, but Glory Bea s father never returned home from the front in France. Glory Bea understands what Mama and Grams and Grandpa say that Daddy died a hero on Omaha Beach yet deep down in her heart, she believes Daddy is still out there. But miracles, like people, are always changing, until at last they find their way home.

France sends the Merci Train to the United States to thank America for helping France during and after WWII, and one of the train stops will be the small town of Gladiola, Texas, where ten-year-old Glory Bea hopes for the greatest miracle--that her missing-in-action father will be on the train.

Moving from Texas to Hawaii in 1960, 12-year-old Peggy Sue faces a difficult transition when she is bulled as one of the few haole (white) students in her school.

In 1960, twelve-year-old Peggy Sue and her family move to the island of Oahu, and she is finding it anything but paradise, because from the first day at school she is bullied and made fun of by the Hawaiian children, and she is worried sick about her beloved cat who is in mandatory quarantine--and then the tsunami hits Hilo where her parents have gone on business.

A biography of the musician, born Charles Hardin Holley during the Depression in Texas, and who pioneered a new kind of music.