One time, p.10
One Time, page 10
You’ve just read one of my books. All those stray pieces and one times float around in me. I am learning that most of us have an intense need to communicate, but that we do it in different ways. I am also learning that people come and go, but that many will leave a piece in you and shape or influence you for years to come. You, too, will leave a piece in them.
When Antonio read a draft of this book, he said, “It’s like the moon is shining down on the ocean of you.”
Maybe my next book will be about a boy who was never called son.
For a long time, I thought I did not want to be married. I like my independence. But lately, I’ve been rethinking that.
Antonio and I, we are like the moon and the water, and maybe we would make a good pair.
You think?
Meanwhile, I wonder about you:
Who are you?
Who could you be?
I want to be improbable beautiful and afraid of nothing, as though I had wings.
—MARY OLIVER
Sources of First Lines That Miss Lightstone Introduced in Her Class:
“There is no lake at Camp Green Lake,” from Holes, by Louis Sachar. New York: Frances Foster Books, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998.
“Rendi was not sure how long the moon had been missing,” from Starry River of the Sky, by Grace Lin. New York: Little, Brown & Co., 2012.
“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit,” from The Hobbit, by J. R. R. Tolkien. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1966.
“We didn’t always live on Mango Street,” from The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros. New York: Vintage Books/Random House, 1984.
“We think they took my papi,” from Harbor Me, by Jacqueline Woodson. New York: Nancy Paulsen Books/Penguin Random House, 2018.
“My name is Elizabeth but no one’s ever called me that,” from How I Live Now, by Meg Rosoff. New York: Wendy Lamb Books/Random House, 2004.
“I have not had so good of a week,” from Clementine, by Sara Pennypacker. New York: Hyperion, 2006.
About the Author
Photo credit Lyle Rigg
SHARON CREECH has written twenty-two books for young people and is published in over twenty languages. Her books have received awards in both the U.S. and abroad, including the Newbery Medal for Walk Two Moons, the Newbery Honor for The Wanderer, and Great Britain’s Carnegie Medal for Ruby Holler.
Before beginning her writing career, Sharon Creech taught English for fifteen years in England and Switzerland. She and her husband now live in Maine. You can visit her online at www.sharoncreech.com.
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Books by Sharon Creech
Walk Two Moons
Absolutely Normal Chaos
Pleasing the Ghost
Chasing Redbird
Bloomability
The Wanderer
Fishing in the Air
Love That Dog
A Fine, Fine School
Ruby Holler
Granny Torrelli Makes Soup
Heartbeat
Who’s That Baby?
Replay
The Castle Corona
Hate That Cat
The Unfinished Angel
The Great Unexpected
The Boy on the Porch
Moo
Saving Winslow
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Copyright
ONE TIME. Copyright © 2020 by Sharon Creech. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
www.harpercollinschildrens.com
Cover art © 2020 by Jori van der Linde
Cover design and lettering by Laura Mock
* * *
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Creech, Sharon, author.
Title: One time / Sharon Creech.
Description: First edition. | New York, NY : HarperCollins, [2020] | Audience: Ages 8-12. | Audience: Grades 4-6. | Summary: Imaginative, eleven-year-old Gina, her mysterious new neighbor, Antonio, and their classmates are inspired by an unusual young teacher to see who they are and envision who they are meant to become.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019043995 | ISBN 9780062570741 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780062570758 (library binding)
Subjects: CYAC: Imagination—Fiction. | Teachers—Fiction. | Schools—Fiction. | Family life—Fiction.
Classification: LCC PZ7.C8615 One 2020 | DDC [Fic]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019043995
* * *
Digital Edition SEPTEMBER 2020 ISBN: 978-0-06-257077-2
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-257074-1
2021222324PC/LSCH10987654321
FIRST EDITION
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1. Holes, Louis Sachar.
2. Starry River of the Sky, Grace Lin.
3. The Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien.
4. The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros.
5. Harbor Me, Jacqueline Woodson.
6. How I Live Now, Meg Rosoff.
7. Clementine, Sara Pennypacker.
Sharon Creech, One Time
