Gourd blackmailing them into baby-sitting for her free. Gourd, one Bible hit her baby, who will be "scarred for life." So Jane and her best friend, Ginny, agree to a plan that is nothing more than Mrs. Nellie Phipps commandeers Jane to help her distribute Bibles, which leads to Jane flying away in the hot-air balloon and flinging the Good Books down And your prayers will be answered, she declares, your prayers will always be answered. "Our preacher, a fat old lady named Nellie Phipps, says from her pulpit that you ought to pray all the time. The mother is an intriguing character because so much about her is unknown, but the story belongs to Jane, who loves her family and her home but is "itchy" and "twisting" and "wanting something more to do this summer" than the usual. Jane's calm and kind mother feeds her four children by digging clams, harvesting berries, making jam and relying on the kindness of the occasional stranger, with whom she might or might not have a history. Jane is 12, the oldest daughter of a single mother (a poet), who lives with her family in a run-down but comfortable cottage on the Massachusetts coast.
The first few adventures experienced by the young protagonist involve a family night at a fair paid for by a stranger who might or might not be her father, a runaway hot-air balloon, a minister who believes in fortunetelling and Bibles falling from the sky. Her newest novel, My One Hundred Adventures (Schwartz & Wade, $16.99, 260 pages, ages 8 to 12), might not live up to the billing of its title - the adventure count never rises to 100 - but everything else about the contemporary tale is pure Horvath: eccentric, enigmatic characters and surprising events. Fans of Polly Horvath know that the author of Everything on a Waffle, The Trollsand The Canning Seasoncan be counted on for the unexpected.
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