0152063730
QUEENSHIP TOWN RESOURCE RECOVERY CENTER:
RULES: NO LEAVING GARBAGE
AT GATE. DON\u2019T PUT FOOD
GARBAGE WITH OTHER STUFF.
DRIVE SLOW INTO DUMP.
THIS MEANS YOU!
Joyce loves gruff Old Dad, and she loves the colored bottles he collects for her from the Resource Recovery Center where he works. Joyce loves the wildlife that lives on the road near the house, and the gorgeous produce that comes from the garden she and Old Dad have on their property. Because of the compost from the food garbage, they get eight foot sunflowers in their garden. Joyce would be really, really happy, if only she didn\u2019t have to go to school. Ever.<\/p>\n
School is not a great place. School is where Joyce gets called \u2018The Dump Queen,\u2019 and gets teased by her classmates that she stinks and she lives in a dump. Joyce\u2019s classmates don\u2019t care that their house is a long walk from the dump, or that Old Dad washes up and changes his shirt before he comes to dinner. They don\u2019t care that her house is as neat as a pin, and even the garbage doesn\u2019t stink because Old Dad separates it out and covers the food garbage with sand so it will compost. They don\u2019t care about the truth. They just want someone to laugh at.<\/p>\n
Joyce is lonely, lonelier than anyone else in her whole school, she thinks. But there are other people who are just as\u2026 alone. There\u2019s the janitor, Mrs. Fish, for one thing. \u201cCrazy Fish,\u201d<\/a> is what people call her, because she sings while she works. She wears the weirdest brightest clothes, gigantic bows in her hair, and she smiles all the time. Doesn\u2019t she know everybody thinks she\u2019s nuts? When grumpy, hermit-like Old Dad falls ill, everything falls apart. Can Joyce trust Crazy Fish to be a true friend \u2013 the kind who won’t throw her away just because of where she lives? The kind who can save the day?<\/p>\n A quirky story of an unusual friendship for ages 8-12 by Norma Fox Mazer.<\/p>\n
She might. But the thing is, she doesn\u2019t seem to care. <\/p>\n