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One evening Mellisa Ballard sees what appears to be a spaceship streaking across the sky. A few minutes later she meets a strange girl who claims to be from another planet…
“Solay is a find: a funny, sharp and strangely realistic little story about an unhappy preteen and her friendship with a quirky girl from another planet…The story ends well, no surprise, but not without keeping readers on edge until the last chapter.”
-Los Angeles Times
“Harris uses humor to address—not sugarcoat—painful issues of particular relevance to his audience: the result is both sensitive and gloriously entertaining.”
-Publishers Weekly
“Like Adrienne Jones’ Street Family, Come the Morning chronicles the lives of the homeless in Los Angeles. This time, however, the subjects are a mother and three children, ages 3, 9, and 13, who’ve come from El Paso in search of the husband and father who deserted them several months earlier…Harris’ portrayals of the Gibsons and of others who interact with them are often detailed and moving. The message is an optimistic one: hope is possible if we care about one another.”
-School Library Journal
“It’s a challenge to steer kids over 12 to books you’d like them to read—like Come the Morning by Mark Jonathan Harris, a novel that successfully tackles a tough subject: homelessness…the story is told with gritty realism that does allow a glimmer of hope—but not much more than that –at the end. Harris is to be applauded for his effort; he doesn’t flinch, although reader will. And should.”
-Los Angeles Times
“Will long remain in the reader’s mind…a wrenching picture of a formerly self-sufficient family that now finds itself among the ranks of the homeless.”
-The Horn Book
FOCAL Award for Best California Children’s Book, 1990
Meg Muldaur had everything – looks, charm, and a big TV contract. As “Carrie,” the lovable brat on thr popular show The Kid and the Cabbie, she was adored by millions from coast to coast. And at home Meg Muldaur was just a regular happy kid – according to all the media stories. Wow was that ever a lie!
“Meg’s story is too engrossing to put down.”
-Los Angeles Times
“Harris has written a fascinating story of the life of a child actor, treating stage mothers, agents and television producers sympathetically. Meg is such a likable, honest character that the reader forgets that this is fiction, not an autobiography. The fan letters, interview excerpts, and bits of script inserted between the chapters give a view of the realities of the glamorous life of a ‘prime time kid.’”
-VOYA
A Weekly Reader Book Club Selection
In the small town of Silverfield, Nevada, Lyle Jeffries counts two outsiders: himself and his grandfather, Bill “Broomtail” Cameron, whose glory days as a mustanger now command little respect. Lyle listens to Bill Cameron’s tales of daring and freedom and dreams of becoming a cowboy. But first he needs a horse…
“This is a good read: solid in structure, varied in pace, spare and pointed in characterization.
–Bulletin of the Center For Children’s Books
“A well-written, sensitive novel highly recommended for its exciting adventure and believable characters. Above all it is an important lesson about growing up in America.”
-Books for Children Clemson University
Golden Spur Award for Best Western Juvenile Fiction
Marlee Philips thinks her life could’t be worse. After all, she has the meanest fifth grade teacher of all time. But then her parents have a terrible argument, her dad walks out, and her mom tells her that they’re getting a divorce….
“Harris shows the difference between a novel and a case study to be vivid detail…Unlike many problem novels on divorce, this involves a situation not kept at the ‘typical’ level but made real by particular detail… The smooth language, characterization, and buildup of events will have children reading this…right to the affecting conclusion.”
-ALA Booklist
“ A readable book that won’t sit on any shelves once the fans of Mazer’s I, Trissy and Blume’s It’s Not the End of the World pounce on it.”
-School Library Journal
” Dialog, characters, emotions – all ring true.”
–Los Angeles Times
A Children’s Choice Selection of the International Reading Association.
Co-written with Deborah Oppenheimer, preface by Lord Richard Attenborough, introduction by David Cesarani.
Based on the feature length documentary film Into the Arms of Strangers.
Written in conjunction with the making of the feature documentary film The Long Way Home.
“I think of those three years, from 1945 when the war ended until 1948 when the State of Israel was established, as the most crucial three years in the entire three-and-a half-thousand year history of the Jewish people. I don’t think there’s another period of three years which has ever been so determinative.”
–Rabbi Herbert A. Friedman
Written with Franklin Mitchell and Steven Schechter, introduction by Studs Terkel.
Among the major powers of World War II, only the United States was spared the massive destruction of lives and property on its homefront. Yet the nation and the American people were profoundly changed by the war. The Homefront vividly chronicles that turbulent period through evocative photographs and remarkable interviews with ordinary Americans whose lives were dramatically affected by the war. The book was written in conjuction with the making of the PBS documentary, The Homefront.
“Engaging reading and instructive history.”
-Los Angeles Times
“(A) work…of considerable charm and force.”
-Washington Post
“An insightful yet sobering look at the still-felt personal effects of the war.”
-Booklist