Stuff
Product Details
Atheneum Books for Young Readers, May 2006
Trade Paperback, 240 pages
ISBN-10: 1416916199
ISBN-13: 9781416916192
Grades: 3 - 7
Read an Excerpt
Chapter 2
Awards and Nominations
- California Collections
- Chicago Public Library's Best of the Best
- Edgar Allan Poe Award
- Eureka! CA in Children's Literature List
- NYPL 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing
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Description
Paolo calls Rufus "a Mack truck with no one driving." Rufus is the O'Neil family dog, and he shows up one morning with part of a twenty-dollar bill in his teeth.
Twelve-year-old Paolo figures that there must be more where that bill came from, and since his cousin Billy needs to repair a bent wheel on his bike, there's a reason for looking. Soon Paolo, his brother Georgie, and Billy end up in the monsignor's garden behind the Cathedral of San Joaquin, but it's not exactly treasure they find, it's a hand that shoots out of the undergrowth to grab Paolo's neck. The search for the stash leads the boys -- sometimes scared spitless -- on many a byway around Orange Grove City, California, in the summer of 1951. And onto the byway of conscience.
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Chapter 2"The Boys of San Joaquin is my kind of book. Smith is a writer that I'm going to keep an eye on."
-- Gary Paulsen
"With this book, Smith joins Richard Peck and Bruce Clements in the select company of latter-day ya writers who can be mentioned in the same sentence as Mark Twain."
-- Washington Post
"[An] offbeat mystery . . . [This] novel weaves themes of conscience, loyalty, and family for a poignant effect."
-- Family Fun
"A standout choice for reading aloud or for curling up with to enjoy alone."
-- Bulletin
D. James Smith's Books
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It Was September When We Ran Away the First TimeThe third and final adventure of Paolo, Billy, Georgie, and the whole gang from the Edgar Award-winning romp The Boys Of San Joaquin.Read More
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