Pat Lowery Collins
Author, Poet, Painter
SIGNS & WONDERS
Houghton Mifflin & Co., 1999
I SBN 0-395-97119-5
"Tucked away at boarding school, fourteen-year-old Taswell is undergoing an extraordinary transformation. She knows it's important, but she's not sure how to deal with it and who she should tell. . .certainly not her distant grandmother, who's busy with work, or her father who has a new and pregnant wife. Isolated from friends and family, she looks for help and advice in surprising places.
As Taswell discovers more about herself and the people around her, she ultimately finds salvation where she least expects it. Told entirely in letters, this startlingly original novel about a search for love and family is both heartbreaking and hilarious." (jacket copy)
A New York Public Library's Book for the Teen Age 2000
A Children's Literature Choice 2000
"A story that is never predictable and always surprising. Collins knows well the emotional range of adolescents and uses this roller coaster of emotions to take readers on a wonderful ride." –VOYA
"This (novel) will provide junior-high girls with first-rate entertainment for the New Millennium." –The Bulletin
"Tenderly and respectfully evoked; like Taswell, (Collins) makes us want to believe." –Horn Book
"Strong voices and an intriguing premise allow readers to contemplate both the mundane and the miraculous." –Booklist