All We Know of Love

Four years, four months, and fifteen days ago, Natalie Gordon's mother walked out mid-sentence, before she finished what she was going to say. Now Natalie is traveling twenty-four hours on a bus to Florida to find her mother, to find herself, to find out something about love. Along the way, Natalie struggles to understand her relationship with Adam, a boy she pines for with near-obsession, and to her surprise, she meets people with stories like her own, stories about giving love and getting lost in the desire to be wanted.

Acclaimed middle-grade novelist Nora Raleigh Baskin makes her young adult debut with a deeply resonant novel about secrets held and secrets shared, about having the courage to uncover all we know — and don’t know — of love.

The Truth About My Bat Mitzvah

Caroline’s mom is Jewish, her dad isn’t, and Caroline has never really thought of herself as any religion. But when her nana dies and leaves Caroline a Star of David necklace, Caroline begins to wonder about her heritage. If she starts going to synagogue, won’t that upset her dad? Does she want a Bat Mitzvah like her best friend, Rachel? Does Caroline want to be Jewish? The more she thinks about it, the more questions she has.
Like Are you There, God? It’s me, Margaret this thoughtful relevant novel traces one girl’s journey toward discovering who she is and where she fits in.

• Junior Library Guild Selection 2008
• 2008 Jewish Book Council Network Selection
• Parent’s Choice Silver Honor Award spring ’08

In the Company of Crazies

In the Company of Crazies is Nora Raleigh Baskin's book released in August 2006.

Thirteen-year-old Mia Singer thought that she had it all under control. Sure, her grades were slipping a little bit (well, really, more than a little), and she couldn't explain her occasional compulsion to shoplift. The sudden death of a classmate affects Mia in a way she can't quite define, but then she goes one step too far. Her parents place her in an "alternative" boarding school. Away from her parents and surrounded by trees, space, and students whose problems she can't completely comprehend, Mia has no choice but to learn about herself.

With insight and sympathy, Nora Raleigh Baskin focuses on the universal feeling of being a misfit, showing that sometimes the path home is as unexpected as it is challenging.

• 2007 CT Press Club Best Children's Book of the Year

Basketball (or something like it)

With accurate portrayals of the action, drama, and fun that take place on and off the basketball court, Baskin's Basketball (or something like it) focuses on the teamwork, fears, loyalty, and, most of all, the friendship between a team's members.

• Connecticut Book Award Finalist 2006
• Louisiana Young Reader’s Choice award nominee 2008
• Garden State Book Award nominee 2008
• NBA Golden State Warrior website, official book choice
• ALA Shooting, Scoring, Sparring, and More: Recommended Sports Novels

Almost Home

Almost Home came from a story Nora would tell when visiting schools right after What Every Girl (except me) Knows was published.  She would talk to  the kids  about her sixth grade year, when she was their age,  having just moved to a new town, to live with a new step mom  and a father she hadn't lived with in years. Then she would tell them about her language arts teacher, Mr. Thomsen and how he helped her find a path and a dream  (even though he didn't know it!) 

So when it was time to write a second novel, Nora says she knew she wanted to tell that story—the story of finding home even when its not where you thought it once was.

What Every Girl (except me) Knows

When asked how long it took to write What Every Girl (except me) Knows, Nora Baskin always answers, "about six months and my whole life." She explains that this was the story she was advised by everyone not to write- it was to personal, too sad. Then after years of trying to write what she thought would be more "publishable" and years of painful rejections, Nora went back to the story that was in her heart. It was the story she had needed to tell since she was a little girl. "And of course, it's personal. And yes, it's a little sad and a little funny. But, mostly it's hopeful. And I like that. This novel has become a dream come true in many more ways than one."

• A Publishers Weekly Flying Start, 2001
• A Booklist Top Ten first Youth Novel
• Publishers Weekly Cuffie award “Most Promising New Author”
• 2003 Lone Star Reading List (Texas Library Association)
• Bank Street College of Education Best Children’s Books of the Year
• VOYA Top Shelf Fiction
• 76Booksense Choice for Children