• Age: 10 to 12
• Grade: p to 12
• Reading age: 0

Winner of the Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize

Adventures. Jane is twelve years old, and she is ready for them. She yearns to move beyond the world of her younger siblings and single mother and their cozy house by the sea, and to step into the "know-not-what" -- the place where your heart buzzes with excitement and things happen.

And over the summer, whether she looks for them or not, adventures keep finding Jane. There's the thrilling solo ride in a hijacked hot-air balloon; the out-of-the-blue appearances of a slew of possible fathers; a weird new friendship with Nellie Phipps, preacher and wannabe psychic; the accidental crime Jane may have committed involving a Bible and a baby named Gourd; and finally, her discovery of the truth that lies at the heart of all great adventures: that it's not what happens to you that matters, but what you learn about yourself.

Polly Horvath is one of the most highly acclaimed authors writing today. Her books include The Canning Season (winner of the National Book Award and the CLA Young Adult Book Award), Everything on a Waffle (a Newbery Honor Book, an ALA Notable Book and winner of the Mr. Christie's Book Award and the Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize), The Trolls (a National Book Award finalist), My One Hundred Adventures (a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, a Booklist Editors' Choice, a Kirkus Reviews Best Children's Book of the Year and winner of a NAPPA Gold Award and the Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize), and Northward to the Moon (an Oprah's Book Club Kids' Reading List selection and winner of a Parents' Choice Gold Award). Her most recent book is Mr. and Mrs. Bunny — Detectives Extraordinaire!

Polly Horvath's profile page

• Winner, Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize

Unconventionality is Horvath's stock in trade, but here the high quirkiness quotient rests easily against Jane's inner story with its honest, childlike core.

Book Links

...typical of Horvath's quirky plots and characters,...

Canadian Literature

...a masterful novel of considerable beauty in its prose, in its plot, in its characters and certainly in its setting, a sand strewn cottage by the sea.

Toronto Star

Horvath is at her finest here, with a cast of unendingly fascinating characters...The narration is both matter-of-fact and over the top, and occasionally hilarious...Highly recommended.

CM Magazine

My One Hundred Adventures