Anne Ylvisaker: 4 books

In Iowa circa 1929, spunky twelve-year-old Tugs vows to turn her family’s luck around, with the help of a Brownie camera and a small-town mystery. (Ages 8-12) Tugs Esther Button was born to a luckless family. Buttons don’t presume to be singers or dancers. They aren’t athletes or artists,...

Fans of the hapless Button family will thrill to this Civil War prequel, featuring the inimitable “Granddaddy Ike” as a boy. “Eleven is not too young for war,” Ike said to Barfoot, who swished his tail agreeably, then lumbered to the yard table and stuck his nose in an unattended pie. When...

"A lovely coming-of-age tale filled with humor and pathos and unexpected twists...The characters are quirky, eccentric, and lovable." — Kirkus Reviews Born Harold Sylvester George Klein, Little Klein can’t seem to measure up to the "Bigs." His older brothers are a boisterous...

As football fever hits Goodhue, Iowa, Ned Button steps into the lineup in a funny new adventure about a small-town family living in 1929. Ever since local boy Lester Ward got drafted by the University of Iowa Hawkeyes, Tugs Button’s scrawny cousin Ned can think of nothing but football. Sure,...