Pie and Other Brilliant Ideas by Karen Pokras Toz ~ Excerpt & Giveaway

From the Award Winning Author of Millicent Marie is Not My Name 

Ballet and baking pies – these are two of twelve year old Georgie Harris’ favorite things. When her parents decide to move closer to her grandmother’s nursing home, Georgie quickly learns the bad news: dance lessons are too expensive in this new town.

Instead, Georgie spends most of her time baking pies to bring to her grandmother at the Willow Lakes Nursing Home. There she meets Eve, who inspires Georgie with stories of having danced with a world famous Russian ballerina many years ago.

As Georgie and Eve’s friendship evolves, their tales intertwine in this feel good story showing dreams really can come true.


BIO

Karen Pokras Toz writes middle grade and adult contemporary fiction. Her books have won several awards including two Readers’ Favorite Book Awards, First Place in the Children’s Chapter Books category and the Grand Prize overall in the 2012 Purple Dragonfly Book Awards, as well as winning first for two Global E-Book Awards for Pre-Teen Literature, and placing Finalist in the USA Best Book Awards. Her books for children include the Nate Rocks series, Millicent Marie Is Not My Name, and Pie and Other Brilliant Ideas. For adults, she recently published Chasing Invisible. A native of Connecticut, Karen now lives outside of Philadelphia with her husband and three children. For more information, please visit www.karentoz.com.



Excerpt

Jane’s door is closed when I get to her room. I can hear music that reminds me of my old ballet classes coming from inside. That’s odd. I guess Jane is already done with her doctor. It’s even odder that Jane would be listening to music. She’s usually glued to the television, watching game shows. She says that when she was younger, she used to win all kinds of prizes on those shows. She claims that she even won a trip out to Hollywood to have a part in some big movie, but Mom and Dad say that’s not exactly what happened. It was more like she won tickets to see the movie. I don’t know. Every time Jane tells the story, the details change slightly and her part in the movie gets a little bit bigger. Not only that, she always changes the subject when I start to ask her for the name of the movie. Seems to me watching her in the movie would clear it all up, right? But for some reason, nobody has thought of that. Makes me wonder what the real story is.

I open the door. In the bed on the far side of the room is a woman I’ve never seen before.

“Oh! Sorry,” I say, “I must have the wrong room.” I close the door and look at the number on the wall. Three twenty-two. No, this is the right room. I guess they finally gave Jane a roommate. That other bed has been empty for so long, I forgot it was even there. I open the door again a crack and peek my head in. “Me again. Looks like I really do have the right room.”

“Come in, come in,” the woman says, turning off the music. She has a slight accent, but I can’t quite tell where she’s from. “You must be Jane’s granddaughter. She told me you would be stopping by. I’m Eve. Eve Gorshkov Porter.”

Links

Website: www.karentoz.com

Blog: http://kptoz.blogspot.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/karenptoz

Twitter: www.twitter.com/karentoz

Amazon: http://bit.ly/PieKindle

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5009570.Karen_Pokras_Toz

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