“Cricket’s funny, clever, and at times uncertain voice shines through and fills this spunky story with personality. The gentle introduction of Alzheimer’s for middle-grade readers adds some nice depth to this heartening story.” —Booklist
“Reminiscent of a Kate DiCamillo story relocated to the big city.” —School Library Journal
“In ways both humorous and touching, The Half-True Lies of Cricket Cohen explores the early stages of Alzheimer’s. As with many families, the Cohens are at first unaware of the little changes. The occasional forgetfulness, the changes in behavior all can be explained. Using Cricket and her own tendency towards exaggeration, Catherine Lloyd Burns subtly points out the difference between eccentricity and symptoms of something more. But beyond that, she also uses Cricket to show how far love, patience, and the bonds of family go towards comforting an individual with dementia. In one wild weekend, Cricket and Dodo both come to realize the shifting nature of memories, the importance of family, and, as perhaps Cricket always knew, the immense power of storytelling.” — BNKIDSblog
“Burns beautifully, sensitively illustrates the transformative dawning in Cricket’s consciousness that there may be some outcroppings and dents starting to scar the glittering surface of Dodo’s 75-year-old brain.
This novel will prove itself not only entertaining and gently instructive to its targeted readership, but a full-on delight for grownups open to appreciating the more sophisticated, yet organic, jokes, treats, references and insights Burns slips in. These include the real-life police precinct from Breakfast at Tiffany’s, as appropriate to the plot as to the skittering (yes, her, too) serio-comic air of Cricket’s story. Eleven year-olds really do mature, and so do adults.” — Junior Edition
“This is not only a family drama but a love letter to New York, as Cricket and Dodo wander Central Park, stay at the Pierre, shop at Barneys and dutifully get arrested by New York’s finest. This will please readers looking for the humorous, the heartfelt, and a romp through the Big Apple.” — Project Muse
"The Good, the Bad, and the Beagle is not about the dog so much as it is about learning how to see from different perspectives, how to grieve, and how to be a good friend...Burns approaches serious (and less serious) topics with empathy and humor, making Veronica's mistakes and recoveries as fun to read about as the boldest of adventures." --VOYA
"Animal-lovers and insecure middle-schoolers alike will connect with this realistic portrayal of tween life." --Booklist
"In sharp contrast to the sad themes that permeate this quiet tale, a strong vein of humor - springing mainly from Veronica's often ironic and feisty attitude - relieves the raw suffering without undermining its power. Readers will find this journey back to contentment both fully believable and emotionally resonant." --Kirkus
"Burns...offers a warmhearted and realistic take on love, grief, and the difficulties and rewards of making human friends." --Publishers Weekly
This video was made before I decided on The Good the Bad and the Beagle as the title for my book. The working title was then "Veronica Louise Morgan".
Set in a Manhattan reminiscent of Louise Fitzhugh’s, and starring a protagonist with as much verve as one of Beverly Cleary’s, this is the story of feisty eleven-year-old Veronica Morgan, who believes that a furry lemon beagle from the neighborhood pet store will be the solution to the endless worries she has about life in general and friendship in particular. This is a problem, since her bumbling psychiatrist parents won’t buy her the puppy she wants or stop meddling in her life at her challenging new school. But things never turn out the way you plan, particularly if you never stop expecting the worst to happen, and haven’t taken a chance on being a true friend yourself.
Writing for kids
I gave up my dream of being a stewardess named Bridgett. But I never gave up my dream of being on tv. I also knew I was going to write books. I kept this plam a secret because a friend of our family's was a writer and he was crazy. Not crazy in a bad way, just crazy in the way that no one ever believed anything he said because he was so flamboyant. Pretty much anything he said, someone would say, "Oh come on, that's crazy." He was a character. He was flamboyant. He was not to be taken seriously. Our house was filled with his screenplays and manuscripts. When he told me that I was a writer, I simply didn't take it seriously. But I never forgot it. Writing and acting are similar because they both involve spending lots of time inside the heads of people who are made up. I think it is important to know your characters and to like them. No one is all good or all bad. Writing is more fun than acting because I don't have to wait for someone to say, "you got the part!" or to say, "action!" or for all the actors to show up. I just show up at my desk and get going. And when it's going well, it is incredibly fun to be inside the characters I make up. The book I wrote for adults is called It Hit Me Like a Ton of Bricks.