Ginny Rorby – författare

"I don''t realize I''m crying until he glances at me. For a moment, I see the look of anguish in his eyes, then he blinks it away and slips off into the water. I immediately think of the gator. It''s still down there somewhere. . . ."

A science-class field trip to the Everglades is supposed to be fun, but Sarah''s new at Glades Academy, and her fellow freshmen aren’t exactly making her feel welcome. When an opportunity for an unauthorized side trip on an air boat presents itself, it seems like a perfect escape—an afternoon without feeling like a sore thumb. But one simple oversight turns a joyride into a race for survival across the river of grass. Sarah will have to count on her instincts—and a guy she barely knows—if they have any hope of making it back alive.

Thirteen-year-old Joey Willis is used to being left out of conversations. Though she’s been deaf since the age of six, Joey’s mother has never allowed her to learn sign language. She strains to read the lips of those around her but often fails.

Everything changes when Joey meets Dr. Charles Mansell and his baby chimpanzee, Sukari. Her new friends use sign language to communicate, and Joey secretly begins learning to sign. Spending time with Charlie and Sukari, Joey has never been happier. She even starts making friends at school for the first time. But as Joey’s world blooms with possibilities, Charlie and Sukari’s choices begin to narrow—until Sukari’s very survival is in doubt.

Inspired by the true story of Lucy Temerlin, a chimpanzee raised as a human child, and the culmination of ten years of research, Hurt Go Happy is the heartbreaking but ultimately uplifting story of one girl''s determination to save the life of a fellow creature-one who shares ninety-eight percent of our DNA and the ability to communicate her pain.

“There’s nothing so good for the inside of a man as the outside of a horse.”—old English proverb

The stories Hannah Gale’s father told her of breaking wild horses in Nevada one glorious summer when he was her age have captured her imagination. After her dad is called to fight in Iraq, she regularly stops to watch the horses at the nearby stable to feel closer to him, and finally gathers the nerve to ask the owner for a job. There she helps bring a rescued mare back from the brink, takes her first riding lesson, and witnesses the birth of the filly who steals her heart.

Hannah believes the worst is over when her dad returns from war, but soon she realizes her family’s fight is only just beginning. When his nightmares rock the household, it is the horses Hannah turns to for comfort. Can the horses help her teach her dad the same lessons of survival and hope they’ve taught her?

Based on a patchwork of true stories, this is a heartbreaking story about the rehabilitative power of animals and the depth of the human capacity for hope.