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    Rules for Hearts

    Author Sara Ryan
    Ebook (EPUB)
    Penguin Young Readers | Speak
    On sale Jan 08, 2009 | 224 Pages | 9781101014868
    Age 14 and up | Grade 9 & Up
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    In this companion novel to Empress of the World, a vibrant summer unfolds as Battle Hall Davies finds herself immersed in the quirky found family dynamics of Forest House.

    “The Rules for Hearts makes its own rules. That’s what I love about it.”—Lauren Myracle, New York Times bestselling author of TTYL and TTFN

    “Sara Ryan puts the world of downtown theater in all its brilliance and insanity on the page.”—Jacqueline Woodson, Newbery Honor-winning author of Feathers and Show Way

    Battle Hall Davies is sure of some things: she’s going to Reed this fall; she loves girls; and her older brother, Nick, is cooler and more together than she’ll ever be. Nick ran away from home when Battle was thirteen. Now, four and a half years later, he’s tracked her down, and she’s spending the summer between high school and college in Forest House, the group house where he lives in Portland.

    It is a summer of surprises. Battle is swept into Forest House’s community Shakespeare production and its all-night card games and into the arms of her new housemate, Meryl. It turns out that Nick is not who Battle thought he was—and Battle’s not who she thought she was either.

    Table of Contents

    Title Page

    Copyright Page

    Dedication

     

    ACT I - Are You Lost?

    ACT II - Some Very Interesting Choices

    ACT III - It ’s a Trick-Taking Game

    ACT IV - Yeah, He’s a Runner

    ACT V - I Got Lucky

     

    Acknowledgements

    BOOKS BY SARA RYAN

    The Rules for Hearts
    Me and Edith Head (with Steve Lieber)
    Empress of the World

    Author’s note: Some places that I’ve written about in this book are real, though I’ve changed details and added elements to suit my story. But Forest House and all its inhabitants are fictional.

     

     

     

    VIKING

    Published by Penguin Group

    Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.
    Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P
    2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)
    Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
    Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland
    (a division of Penguin Books Ltd)
    Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a
    division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)
    Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park,
    New Delhi-110 017, India
    Penguin Group (NZ), Cnr Airborne and Rosedale Roads, Albany, Auckland 1310, New Zealand
    (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)
    Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196,
    South Africa

    Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
    First published in 2007 by Viking, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

     

     

    Copyright © Sara Ryan, 2007

    All rights reserved

     

    Lyrics quoted on page 122 are from “Palmcorder Yajna” by the Mountain Goats, C & P Cadmean Dawn [ASCAP], rights administered by Pacific Electric and used with permission of the artist.

    LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA IS AVAILABLE

    eISBN : 978-1-101-01486-8

    for U. C., with love

    CAST,IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE

    BATTLE HALL DAVIES, 18-year-old high school graduate, accepted to Reed College

     

    NICHOLAS DAVIES, 22, Battle’s older brother, a cab driver, resident of Forest House

     

    MERYL DAVENPORT, 22, swimming instructor, resident of Forest House

     

    AURORA KNEEDLER, 46, owner of Forest House and artistic director of Theater Borealis

     

    ROBERT CRACKNELL, 50, resident of Forest House, set designer and builder, Aurora’s partner

     

    CHARLES FAHEY, 27, gardener, bike messenger, designer, resident of Forest House

     

    HENRY O’BRIAN, 55, donor to and actor in Theater Borealis

     

    DAMIAN J. WOLF, 28, actor in Theater Borealis

     

    A NNALISA TANNAHILL, 34, actor in Theater Borealis

     

    ELLERY TANNAHILL-LIPPMAN, 11, Annalisa’s daughter, actor in Theater Borealis

     

    THE MINIONS, assorted genders, ages, Robert’s helpers in the Theater Borealis scene shop

     

    LUCKY, 3, a dog

    PROLOGUE

    Church basement, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, almost five years ago

    . All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
    “The Rules for Hearts makes its own rules. That’s what I love about it.”—Lauren Myracle, New York Times bestselling author of TTYL and TTFN

    “Sara Ryan puts the world of downtown theater in all its brilliance and insanity on the page.”—Jacqueline Woodson, Newbery Honor winning author of Feathers and Show Way

    “Ryan does a wonderful job of portraying a group of creative young people with limited finances, fluid sexuality, and complicated relationships. This novel celebrates the process of becoming an adult without providing any easy answers.”—School Library Journal

    “Ryan memorably captures an older teen’s tumultuous first summer of independence. . . . The artsy, ensemble cast is memorable, and both gay and straight relationships are described with refreshing honesty.”—Booklist

    “Sara Ryan’s writing is hilarious and true. Everything Battle thought, I was right there with her.”—Ariel Schrag, author of the comic book series Awkward, Definition, Potential, and Likewise
    © Beth Olson
    Sara Ryan is the author of the graphic novel Bad Houses with art by Carla Speed McNeil, young adult novels The Rules for Heartsand Empress of the World, the middle-grade novel called Mountain Upside Down, and various comics, short stories, and essays. They are on the faculty of the MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults Program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. View titles by Sara Ryan

    About

    In this companion novel to Empress of the World, a vibrant summer unfolds as Battle Hall Davies finds herself immersed in the quirky found family dynamics of Forest House.

    “The Rules for Hearts makes its own rules. That’s what I love about it.”—Lauren Myracle, New York Times bestselling author of TTYL and TTFN

    “Sara Ryan puts the world of downtown theater in all its brilliance and insanity on the page.”—Jacqueline Woodson, Newbery Honor-winning author of Feathers and Show Way

    Battle Hall Davies is sure of some things: she’s going to Reed this fall; she loves girls; and her older brother, Nick, is cooler and more together than she’ll ever be. Nick ran away from home when Battle was thirteen. Now, four and a half years later, he’s tracked her down, and she’s spending the summer between high school and college in Forest House, the group house where he lives in Portland.

    It is a summer of surprises. Battle is swept into Forest House’s community Shakespeare production and its all-night card games and into the arms of her new housemate, Meryl. It turns out that Nick is not who Battle thought he was—and Battle’s not who she thought she was either.

    Excerpt

    Table of Contents

    Title Page

    Copyright Page

    Dedication

     

    ACT I - Are You Lost?

    ACT II - Some Very Interesting Choices

    ACT III - It ’s a Trick-Taking Game

    ACT IV - Yeah, He’s a Runner

    ACT V - I Got Lucky

     

    Acknowledgements

    BOOKS BY SARA RYAN

    The Rules for Hearts
    Me and Edith Head (with Steve Lieber)
    Empress of the World

    Author’s note: Some places that I’ve written about in this book are real, though I’ve changed details and added elements to suit my story. But Forest House and all its inhabitants are fictional.

     

     

     

    VIKING

    Published by Penguin Group

    Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.
    Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P
    2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)
    Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
    Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland
    (a division of Penguin Books Ltd)
    Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a
    division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)
    Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park,
    New Delhi-110 017, India
    Penguin Group (NZ), Cnr Airborne and Rosedale Roads, Albany, Auckland 1310, New Zealand
    (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)
    Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196,
    South Africa

    Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
    First published in 2007 by Viking, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

     

     

    Copyright © Sara Ryan, 2007

    All rights reserved

     

    Lyrics quoted on page 122 are from “Palmcorder Yajna” by the Mountain Goats, C & P Cadmean Dawn [ASCAP], rights administered by Pacific Electric and used with permission of the artist.

    LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA IS AVAILABLE

    eISBN : 978-1-101-01486-8

    for U. C., with love

    CAST,IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE

    BATTLE HALL DAVIES, 18-year-old high school graduate, accepted to Reed College

     

    NICHOLAS DAVIES, 22, Battle’s older brother, a cab driver, resident of Forest House

     

    MERYL DAVENPORT, 22, swimming instructor, resident of Forest House

     

    AURORA KNEEDLER, 46, owner of Forest House and artistic director of Theater Borealis

     

    ROBERT CRACKNELL, 50, resident of Forest House, set designer and builder, Aurora’s partner

     

    CHARLES FAHEY, 27, gardener, bike messenger, designer, resident of Forest House

     

    HENRY O’BRIAN, 55, donor to and actor in Theater Borealis

     

    DAMIAN J. WOLF, 28, actor in Theater Borealis

     

    A NNALISA TANNAHILL, 34, actor in Theater Borealis

     

    ELLERY TANNAHILL-LIPPMAN, 11, Annalisa’s daughter, actor in Theater Borealis

     

    THE MINIONS, assorted genders, ages, Robert’s helpers in the Theater Borealis scene shop

     

    LUCKY, 3, a dog

    PROLOGUE

    Church basement, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, almost five years ago

    . All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

    Reviews

    “The Rules for Hearts makes its own rules. That’s what I love about it.”—Lauren Myracle, New York Times bestselling author of TTYL and TTFN

    “Sara Ryan puts the world of downtown theater in all its brilliance and insanity on the page.”—Jacqueline Woodson, Newbery Honor winning author of Feathers and Show Way

    “Ryan does a wonderful job of portraying a group of creative young people with limited finances, fluid sexuality, and complicated relationships. This novel celebrates the process of becoming an adult without providing any easy answers.”—School Library Journal

    “Ryan memorably captures an older teen’s tumultuous first summer of independence. . . . The artsy, ensemble cast is memorable, and both gay and straight relationships are described with refreshing honesty.”—Booklist

    “Sara Ryan’s writing is hilarious and true. Everything Battle thought, I was right there with her.”—Ariel Schrag, author of the comic book series Awkward, Definition, Potential, and Likewise

    Author

    © Beth Olson
    Sara Ryan is the author of the graphic novel Bad Houses with art by Carla Speed McNeil, young adult novels The Rules for Heartsand Empress of the World, the middle-grade novel called Mountain Upside Down, and various comics, short stories, and essays. They are on the faculty of the MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults Program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. View titles by Sara Ryan

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