Toenails, Tonsils, and Tornadoes - Softcover

Bonnie Pryor thoroughly researched important periods of American history for each of her American Adventures. For Luke on the High Seas, she delved into seafaring in the nineteenth century so that the details of Luke Reed's journey would be accurate. She lives in Gambier, Ohio.In Her Own Words...

"I grew up in Spokane, Washington, the middle child in a family of three girls. Books were a part of my life from as far back as I can remember. I was often in trouble for reading at the wrong time. I would be caught reading under the dining room table when I was supposed to be dusting, or reading under the covers by flashlight late at night-even hiding a novel inside my textbooks at school.

"Not everyone thought I read too much. I remember a school librarian who saved all the new books for me to read first, and on several occasions she gave me presents of books. Perhaps she felt she should because I had read every single thing in her library!

"I was very shy, and, like Robert in The Plum Tree War, I spent a lot of my time hanging from my knees from a favorite plum tree, telling myself stories. Of course since I was raised in the West these stories were usually about wild horses and cowboys, and I was always the heroine who came to the rescue. The stories were long and involved, sometimes going on for days. I was always impatient to get to my tree each day so I could find out what was going to happen next, but I was too lazy to write the stories down.

"I think everyone expected me to become a writer, but it took me twenty years and a gentle nudge from my husband, Robert, to build up the courage to try. In the meantime I moved to Ohio, worked at a variety of jobs, and raised a family. I have four grown children, eight grandchildren, and two daughters still at home-Jenny and Chrissy. Many of my books are loosely based upon incidents in my children's lives, and they often appear as characters, in personality if not by name.

"My family recently moved to the country. When I'm not writing and visiting schools, we're busy building barns and fences and laying out flower beds. In addition, we all take part in caring for the four newcomers to our home: three horses and a bunny!"

Did you ever wonder if you were born into the wrong family? I think about that a lot. It's as if some angel decided to play a practical joke on the day I was born. "See that Snodgrass family down there on earth?" he said to the other angels. "They live in New Albany, Ohio. Everyone in town knows they're special. The dad's a doctor, and in a few years the mom's going to be mayor. They have a sports star son and a brainy daughter. Now baby number three is coming along. Let's put an ordinary kid in the family for a change and see what happens. Then later we'll give him a really cute little brother." Some joke. When I was little, friends of my parents adopted a baby. For a long time after that, I was sure that I had been adopted, too. One day I finally got enough courage to ask my mom about it. She just pointed to our family picture that's sitting on the coffee table. There we all were, lined up. There was my brother Tim, my sister, Caroline, my little brother Robbie, and me. All of us with our red hair and freckles just like Dad's. "What do you think?" Mom asked. "Maybe I just got put in the wrong body," I said.

I know I could never be like my brother Tim. His whole room is about to sink with the weight of all his sports trophies. I'm pretty good at math, but that's nothing compared to Caroline. She's eleven, only a year older than I am. But she is two years ahead of me at school because she's so smart. When I look in the mirror I see a fairly nice face, but of course Robbie, my little brother, is much cuter.

My sister, Caroline, has a theory about it. "If you ordinary, boring people weren't around," she said, "how would anyone know he or she was amazing? Take me, for instance," she added brightly. "Next to you I positively shine." I have to admit her theory does make sense.

I guess I really don't have much to complain about. I have a new puppy named Sam, and he's finally house broken, so Mom and Dad let him sleep in my room at night. He's supposed to sleep on the floor, but every morning when I wake up, he's on the bed beside me.