Texas Author: Liz Garton Scanlon

Texas author Liz Garton Scanlon has a way with words.

She has a way of framing a concept into delightful couplets that intrigue the mind with a fresh way of thinking about things and enchant the ear with the sound of language.

Her books cover a wide range of ideas from appreciating wonder in the Caldecott honor book All the World, to coping with change in The Good Pie Party, to celebrating the joy of the arts and creativity in Think Big.

With the publication of In the Canyon, Liz invites readers on a nonfiction exploration of the Grand Canyon.

The Great Good Summer

This year Liz Garton Scanlon published her first book for middle grade readers, The Great Good Summer.
 Meet Ivy Green, of Loomer Texas. Her  life has turned upside down. Mama has run off to Florida with Hallelujah Dave and she is left at home, trying to learn exactly where her mama is and why she left home. Searching for answers, she boards a Greyhound Bus with her friend Paul to find her mother and answers to her questions. Note: I think this was the year of the Great Greyhound bus odyssey. Young tweens and teens seek for answers and come to terms with loss while traveling via transit coach. Mary Iris Malone heads for Ohio in Mosquitoland, Eva Roth travels to California in Kissing in America, and now Ivy sets her sights on Florida.  Cue Simon & Garfunkel's  Look for American.
Road Trip! Get on the bus with Ivy and Paul as she seeks for answers. ​“My problem is, I’ve got a lot of voices inside,” I say. "They interrupt one another all the time.”

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Ivy's truths about science, religion, and belief

• Everyone is searching for meaning and reasons why

"God is alive and well in Loomer,Texas, so I don't know why Mama had to go all the way to The Great Good Bible Church of Panhandle Florida to him, or to find herself, either." 

• Religion isn't a cure-all

This is different I just know that church isn’t gonna fix up any holes in me today.

• Everyone wants to believe in something

“Oh, dear God,” I say, in that sort of yell-whisper I’ve used all morning. “Oh, please, please, dear God.” Cause really, a little bit of God would come in handy right about now.

• Science doesn't have all the answers

“Then, what? You’re the scientist, Paul. You’re in the business of hypotheses. You tell me?”

• It's all about believing

But at some point I guess Mama stopped believing it herself. It’s like the cross around my neck. The shine wore right off…”

• Sometimes stereotypes are wrong

“Nice to meet you, man,” Paul says, which proves once and for all that he might be the nicest and most flexible guy on earth. It doesn’t fit in with my idea of how the science guys are, but what did I ever really know about them anyway?

• How much you care trumps how much you know

“You care more about a God you don’t even know than you do about me!” I shout at Mama over my shoulder. And then I step out completely and slam the door with all my might.

• Everyone has their own belief system

I mean, honestly. I’m as likely to become a scientists Paul is to become a preacher.

• Hold onto what you really know

...when you're looking up in wonder at the great-good-heavens above,you are so full up with mystery and surprise that it feels nice to hold on to something that you really know.