Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Ben and the Sudden Too-Big Family
    Unavailable
    Ben and the Sudden Too-Big Family
    Unavailable
    Ben and the Sudden Too-Big Family
    Ebook111 pages1 hour

    Ben and the Sudden Too-Big Family

    By Colby Rodowsky

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Ben's philosophy of life is that there are two categories of things that happen, the all-right stuff and the not-all-right stuff. Ben has always lived with just his dad, Mitch, which definitely falls into the all-right category. When Mitch meets Casey and they decide to get married, that turns out to be all right, too. Then Mitch and Casey decide to adopt a baby from China, and Ben isn't sure which category the whole baby thing is going to fit into. After the baby comes home (it's all right), Casey and Mitch announce that the four of them – as a family – are going on vacation with Casey's family. All twenty-three of them! Ben is sure this will not be all right!

    How eleven-year-old Ben finds his place in a crazy-big family makes this a funny novel about family and what it means to be a part of one.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateMar 20, 2007
    ISBN9780374706876
    Unavailable
    Ben and the Sudden Too-Big Family
    Author

    Colby Rodowsky

    Colby Rodowsky Whenever I try to piece together anything even slightly resembling an autobiographical sketch, I find that a lot of my remembering has to do with books: what I read (almost anything); where I read (almost anywhere); and why. Why is the key. It has, in part, to do with being an only child, often alone. I spent a part of every summer visiting my grandmother on the eastern shore of Virginia, where the days were long and hot and there was absolutely nothing to do. Nothing to do, that is, until I discovered the library that had been a church (open three afternoons a week, and with the fiction section two steps up, where the altar used to be), and for the off-days, my grandmother's attic (and all the books my mother and aunt had read as children). It's no wonder that that library and attic keep turning up in the things I write. There is, after all, something to be said for aloneness, at least in my case, because it led to books. I like to think that there is a lovely distinction between aloneness and loneliness, and the real reader will rejoice in the one and never know the other. Anyway, I read. (Well, I did other things, too: jumped rope and collected bottle caps and paper dolls.) I grew up in Baltimore, New York, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore again; went to college (majoring in English); and taught school (third grade and then Special Education). I got married (to a lawyer who is now a judge) and had six children (five girls and one boy) and learned to make cupcakes and Halloween costumes and peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches. I still read. In order to find time for reading, I had to make sure the children had something to do -- so I cultivated readers. Believe it or not, in a household of eight, we all managed to find time for a little aloneness. But there was something else that kept prodding me: the books I hadn't written yet. Once, when I was about ten years old, I woke my mother in the middle of the night and said, "Who shall I dedicate my first book to?" And she, with great practicality, said,"Why don't you write it first." And went back to sleep. So, when the children were old enough to make their own cupcakes and Halloween costumes, I did. I have been writing ever since and hope to keep it up for a long time to come. The children are grown now and there are five sons-in-law, a daughter-in-law, and thirteen grandchildren. There are new readers in the family to encourage, to foster.

    Related to Ben and the Sudden Too-Big Family

    Related ebooks

    Children's Family For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Woman About Town

      Jul 28, 2022

      Woman About Town
      5 min read

    • Article

      Perfect Casting

      Jul 11, 2019

      Perfect Casting
      5 min read

    • Article

      Samuel West

      Aug 30, 2021

      Samuel West
      5 min read

    • Article

      Paul O’grady

      Sep 12, 2022

      Paul O’grady
      5 min read

    • Article

      Family Ties

      May 2, 2021

      Family Ties
      4 min read

    • Article

      Two Years Of Solitude

      Dec 31, 2021

      Two Years Of Solitude
      12 min read

    • Article

      Picture Imperfect

      Jun 20, 2021

      The photo is seven decades old this week. It’s the shortest day of 1951, I’m sitting on the back veranda of our shabby old house, and I’m about to turn eight. I know it was the shortest day, because that was part of my Mum’s mantra whenever she brou

      3 min read

    • Article

      For Even Better

      Nov 26, 2022

      For Even Better
      4 min read

    • Article

      A Peaceful Solution

      Mar 25, 2020

      A Peaceful Solution
      2 min read

    • Article

      My So-called Cottage Life

      Jun 26, 2019

      My So-called Cottage Life
      7 min read

    • Article

      Joe Pintz: The Old Way

      Jun 30, 2021

      Joe Pintz: The Old Way
      12 min read

    • Article

      The Flynns’ Effect

      Aug 11, 2019

      The Flynns’ Effect
      7 min read

    • Article

      Will VIDLER

      Mar 31, 2022

      Will VIDLER
      4 min read

    • Article

      My Funny, Angry Dad

      Mar 19, 2022

      My Funny, Angry Dad
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Stuff Of Happiness

      Feb 26, 2020

      Growing up, I didn’t have much, so I remember all of it. And that may be a promise of future joy in my life.

      2 min read

    • Article

      Projections of Life

      Jun 1, 2023

      Projections of Life
      14 min read

    • Article

      George Clarke

      Jan 29, 2024

      George Clarke
      6 min read

    • Article

      “I Wore The Daily Mail Down By Still Being Here”

      Apr 25, 2021

      Broadcaster and presenter Sandi Toksvig might be the closest thing we have to lesbian royalty in the UK. As host of shows like QI and The Great British Bake Off, the 62-year-old has become a beloved household name, adored by millions. How different t

      7 min read

    • Article

      BITS & PIECES

      Aug 1, 2023

      When I was a child we lived in Pax, W.Va., a small community with a lot of churches. I remember at least six different ones while I was growing up there in the 1950s. Since it was a very small community of just a few hundred people (less than that no

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Letterbox

      Apr 1, 2020

      Dear Everybuggy, My nonna recently found my mom’s old Cricket magazines. I was reading them one day when a story from the October 1976 issue caught my eye. “Minnie Maloney and Macaroni” is about a family who buys seven boxes of macaroni every day for

      7 min read

    • Article

      Table Talk

      Sep 1, 2023

      Table Talk
      10 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Ben and the Sudden Too-Big Family

    4/5

    3 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words