Twelve-year-old Lowen Grover, a budding comic-book artist, is still reeling from the shooting death of his friend Abe when he stumbles across an article about a former mill town giving away homes for just one dollar. It not only seems like the perfect escape from Flintlock and all of the awful memories associated with the city, but an opportunity for his mum to run her very own business. Fortunately, his family is willing to give it a try. But is the Dollar Program too good to be true? The homes are in horrible shape, and the locals are less than welcoming. Will Millville and the dollar house be the answer to the Grovers’ troubles? Or will they find they’ve traded one set of problems for another? Jennifer Richard Jacobson is the author of several books for children and young adults, including the Andy Shane early chapter books, illustrated by Abby Carter, and the middle-grade novels Small as an Elephant and Paper Things. She lives in Maine. Ryan Andrews is a comics artist and illustrator living in Fukuoka, Japan. Two of his web comics have been nominated for Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards. On sale August 7, 2018 HC: 978-0-7636-9474-6 $17.99 ($21.99 CAN) Ages 10–14 • 416 pages Also available as an e-book and in audio FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JEnnIFer RIcHard Jacobson ILLUSTRATED BY Ryan Andrews THE OL L A R KI D S From the author of Small as an Elephant and Paper Things comes a heart-tugging novel about guilt and grief, family and friendship, and, above all, community.
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Twelve-year-old Lowen Grover, a budding comic-book artist, is still
reeling from the shooting death of his friend Abe when he stumbles
across an article about a former mill town giving away homes for just
one dollar. It not only seems like the perfect escape from Flintlock
and all of the awful memories associated with the city, but an
opportunity for his mum to run her very own business. Fortunately,
his family is willing to give it a try. But is the Dollar Program too
good to be true? The homes are in horrible shape, and the locals
are less than welcoming. Will Millville and the dollar house be the
answer to the Grovers’ troubles? Or will they find they’ve traded one
set of problems for another?
Jennifer Richard Jacobson is the author of several
books for children and young adults, including the Andy Shane early
chapter books, illustrated by Abby Carter, and the middle-grade
novels Small as an Elephant and Paper Things. She lives in Maine.
Ryan Andrews is a comics artist and
illustrator living in Fukuoka, Japan. Two of
his web comics have been nominated for Will
Eisner Comic Industry Awards.
On sale August 7, 2018
HC: 978-0-7636-9474-6
$17.99 ($21.99 CAN)
Ages 10–14 • 416 pages
Also available as an e-book and in audio
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JEnnIFer RIcHard Jacobson
ILLUSTRATED BY Ryan Andrews
THE
OLLAR KIDS
From the author of Small as an Elephant and Paper Things comes a heart-tugging novel about guilt and grief, family and friendship, and, above all, community.
The seeds for The Dollar Kids were planted in 2012. It was the year I married my awesome
husband and the year my dear mother died. It was a year that I traveled all across the country
to work with kids on their writing. And it was the year twenty young children and six adults
were shot at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Right after the shooting, I was ruminating about Adam Lanza, the killer (not much more than a
boy himself), and wondered what he thought his rampage would accomplish. Surely, I thought,
he must not believe in an afterlife. But what if there is an afterlife? What if Adam wakes up in
a room with his mother (whom he shot) and the twenty six- and seven-year-olds? What would
happen next?
Like me, Lowen Grover (my twelve-year-old protagonist) and his family alternate between grief
and hope. When the opportunity arises to purchase an old home in a rural area for one dollar,
they take the plunge. For Lowen’s parents, the move promises the fulfillment of dreams. But
Lowen, who suffers from guilt in addition to grief, is simply in need of an escape.
Of course, escape is never as easy as we think it will be.
I set the story in a former mill town much like the one my husband grew up in. At first glance,
the townsfolk and the dollar families have little in common other than their seeming desire
for change. Yet one group pines for change in the form of reinvention, and the other clings
to the hope that things will go back to the way they used to be. Both have to rise above their
indignations.
All of us (yes, even children) struggle with the opposing forces of more and enough, happiness
and sadness, hope and despair. I wrote this story to remind us that our joy depends upon our
willingness to embrace change . . . that we’re all more alike than we are different . . . and that