“What are you doing?” Mom follows him into the dining room.
“Celebrating,” says Dad. “Chad, go to the kitchen and find something we can toast with. And grab a dishcloth, too,” he adds, blowing a tiny dust bunny from one of the glasses.
Chad returns a minute later with a dish towel and a two-liter. “It’s warm,” he says.
“That’s all right,” Dad tells him.
Leslie follows Chad into the dining room, and she starts wiping out the wineglasses while Chad opens the ginger ale. I stand in the doorway and watch the scene play out.
Our problems aren’t over. Our family is still broken in a lot of ways. Mom’s not perfect, and a counselor isn’t going to make her that way. But Leslie’s optimism must be rubbing off. Because for the first time in a long time, I believe that our broken pieces will hold together. We’re going to be okay. We’re going to be better than we were.
“Come on, Annabelle.” Leslie is holding out a streaky, half-full wineglass.
I take it from her and join them in the dining room. I can see specks of dust floating on the golden surface of my ginger ale. They’re being pushed around by the popping bubbles. But I don’t complain. I’ll clink my glass against theirs and pretend to sip my grimy ginger ale.
Dad makes a toast, but I don’t really listen. Instead, I look from face to face, and I’m filled with the kind of warmth that soothes over and fills in the cracks. When I look at Mom, it strikes me for the first time that our eyes are the exact same color, the exact same shade. And I make another decision.
One day soon, I’ll ask my mom to tell me her story.
I would like to thank my fabulous agent, Linda Camacho.
Without her initiative and enthusiasm, this novel would still be languishing in a file on my computer.
I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Scholastic, especially to my editor, Emily Seife, for her guidance and encouragement.
I am grateful to the community of writers I encountered through Vermont College of Fine Arts. I particularly wish to thank my classmates, the Allies in Wonderland, for their support and friendship.
I am also grateful to my VCFA advisors: Tom Birdseye who helped me find the humor in my writing; Shelley Tanaka who encouraged me to write a story about sisters;
Martine Leavitt who steered me in the right direction; and Sarah Ellis who taught me how to revise.
I am indebted to my critique group, the Charglings, for all of their insight and feedback, and to the staff and students of James Madison Preparatory School who have graciously accommodated my love of both teaching and writing. Lastly, to my amazing friends and family, especially my parents—thank you.
Mary E. Lambert is a middle school English teacher at a charter school in Tempe, Arizona. In 2014, she graduated from the Vermont College of Fine Arts with an MFA in children’s writing. This is her first novel. Find her at maryelambert.com or on Twitter at @MaryUncontrary.
Copyright © 2017 by Mary E. Lambert
All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., Publishers since 1920. SCHOLASTIC, SCHOLASTIC PRESS, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Lambert, Mary E., 1984– author.
Title: Family game night and other catastrophes / Mary E. Lambert.
Description: First edition. | New York, NY : Scholastic Press, 2017. | Summary: Seventh-grader Annabelle’s mother is a hoarder, and their whole house is full of canned goods, broken toys, fabric, and old newspapers—but when a pile of newspapers (organized by weather reports) falls on Annabelle’s younger sister Leslie and their mother is more concerned about the newspapers, it sets off a chain of events that brings their fix-it-all grandmother in and Annabelle realizes that if there is any hope for change she can not isolate herself and keep her family’s problems secret.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016030472 (print) | LCCN 2016032690 (ebook) | ISBN 9780545931984 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780545932004
Subjects: LCSH: Compulsive hoarding—Juvenile fiction. | Obsessive-compulsive disorder—Juvenile fiction. | Family secrets—Juvenile fiction. | Mothers and daughters—Juvenile fiction. | Sisters—Juvenile fiction. | Families—Juvenile fiction. | CYAC: Compulisive hoarding—Fiction. | Obsessive-compulsive disorder—Fiction. | Secrets—Fiction. | Mothers and daughters—Fiction. | Sisters—Fiction. | Family problems—Fiction.
Classification: LCC PZ7.1.L25 Fam 2017 (print) | LCC PZ7.1.L25 (ebook) | DDC 813.6 [Fic] —dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016030472
First edition, March 2017
Jacket art and design © 2017 by Maeve Norton
e-ISBN 978-0-545-93200-4
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication 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 the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.
Family Game Night and Other Catastrophes Page 17
