Martine Murray

Henrietta, whose favorite color is red and who wants to be an explorer, describes some of her life with her baby brother Albert, her dog Madge, her best friend Olive, and what it is like to be "half a Hen and half a Rietta."

"In a small country town during one long, hot summer, the Bloom family is beginning to unravel. Martha is straining against the confines of her life, lost in regret for what might have been, when an old flame shows up. In turn, her husband Mike becomes frustrated with his increasingly distant wife. Marital secrets, new and long-hidden, start to surface-with devastating effect. And while teenagers Tilly and Ben are about to step out into the world,...

When twelve-year-old Cedar loses her dog, it sets off a chain of events leading her to find a new friend, become an acrobat, and learn some bitter-sweet truths about family, community, and herself.

"Hello everybody, it's me, Henrietta (future Queen of the Wide Wide Long Cool Coast of the Lost Socks), and my brother Albert, who dribbles and dribbles (but he can't help it), and my best friend Olive Higgie (who has been known to eat pickles). And we've got an EMERGENCY DILEMMA to attend to. We absolutely have to find a home for the Rietta because it's lost and its spots are fading ... "--Provided by publisher.