by Cat Bauer
Many thanks to my agent, William Clark, and to my first editor, Francesca Crispino, who helped make Harley into a person. Thank you to Joan Slattery and everyone at Knopf, to Susan Raboy, and to my attorney, Ira Selsky, for bringing Harley back to life. Special thanks to Sue Alexander, Walter Dean Myers, and the SCBWI, early believers, and to Chris Crutcher, Arthur Levine, and Barry Goldblatt for their help. Also, to my family and friends, especially Andrea Castione, Spencer Davis, Samangelo Ciervo, John Dajani, Marley Klaus, Cynthia Keltner, and Sara Jane Boyers. Most importantly, grazie mille to Paolo Trentinaglia de Daverio, who breathed new life into the dream.
Also by Cat Bauer
HARLEY's NINTH
Sixteen-year-old Harley Columba knows that October 9th won't be an ordinary day. At 8:00 a.m. she stands on the pier and gazes at the Statue of Liberty, framed by the morning sun and the fading moon. This is the day her first art exhibit opens in a gallery in New York City. The day Harley and her friends will visit the Broadway set designed by her newfound father, the famous Sean Shanahan. The day she returns to her hometown, Lenape Lakes, New Jersey, in stifling suburbia— with Sean, who hasn't been back for fourteen years.
The fact that it's the ninth also means that she's five days late. She and Evan were careless that one time, and she could be about to make a mess of her life. October 9th— Harley's ninth—promises to be a monumental day as Harley reexamines herself as an artist, a girlfriend, a daughter, and a person.
In this second novel by award-winning author Cat Bauer, the unforgettable Harley Columba returns with a tough and touching story of the way life can change so unexpectedly—in a single day.
THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents
either are the product of the author's imagination or are used
fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead,
events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2000 by Cat Bauer
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of
Random House Children's Books, a division of Random House, Inc.,
New York. Originally published in slightly different form by
Winslow Press, New York, in 2000.
KNOPF, BORZOI BOOKS, and the colophon are registered trademarks of
Random House, Inc.
www.randomhouse.com/teens
Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at
www.randomhouse.com/teachers
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bauer, Cat.
Harley, like a person / by Cat Bauer.
p. cm.
SUMMARY: Fourteen-year-old Harley, an artistic teenager living with
her alcoholic father and angry mother, suspects that she is adopted
and begins a search for her biological parents.
eISBN: 978-0-307-48582-3
[1. Family problems—Fiction. 2. Alcoholism—Fiction.
3. Adoption—Fiction. 4. Parent and child—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.B32585Har 2007
[Fic]—dc22
2005032005
v3.0