Linda Crew – författare

Sundara fled Cambodia with her aunt''s family to escape the Khmer Rouge army when she was thirteen, leaving behind her parents, her brother and sister, and the boy she had loved since she was a child.Now, four years later, she struggles to fit in at her Oregon high school and to be "a good Cambodian girl" at home. A good Cambodian girl never dates; she waits for her family to arrange her marriage to a Cambodian boy. Yet Sundara and Jonathan, an extraordinary American boy, are powerfully drawn to each other. Haunted by grief for her lost family and for the life left behind, Sundara longs to be with him. At the same time she wonders, Are her hopes for happiness and new life in America disloyal to her past and her people?From the Paperback edition.

Life at Robby Hummer''s house is wild, fun, and a big mess since his twin brother and sister were born. At school, he''d rather read quietly than play games at recess of watch a filmstrip. But his teacher thinks he reads too much and sends him to Mrs. Van Gent, the schol counselor. Sheesh! Since when is liking books a problem?Meanwhile, some kids at school think it''s weired that Robby''s father stays home to take care of the twins while his mother works. Robby worries that, if his family is not like everybody else''s, the authorities could take him away from them. When he learns that Mrs. Van Gent is coming to dinner, he knows she plans to spy. He''s got to turn the Hummers into a normal family-now!

Corvallis, Oregon, 2009. The economy is still in the tank from the Great Recession, and the Garlands, owners of the largest family-owned forest tracts in the county, are reeling from a series of devastating personal losses. Nobody's having a harder time coping than Will Trask, the son-in-law who grew up in a logging family in the neighboring timber town of Eden Mills. Everyone loves the trees, but Will, now a forestry consultant and real estate agent, faces a unique struggle in straddling the two worlds-those who own the forests and those who cut them down. The loss of his wife, the cherished daughter of the Garland clan, has been a crushing blow, complicating his precarious family position. Family Trees is a story of the ways in which people who are stuck find the means to break free and move on. It examines the value as well as the limits of family ties, celebrating, above all, the courage it takes to recognize the power of the present moment, the power of now. Award-winning author of the beloved Children of the River and A Heart for Any Fate, Linda Crew now delivers her long-awaited Oregon family saga, a life-affirming and perfect comfort-of-a-read for these turbulent times.