The Year Money Grew on Trees - Aaron Hawkins [0]
Aaron R. Hawkins
* * *
Written and illustrated by
Aaron R. Hawkins
* * *
Houghton Mifflin Books for Children
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT
BOSTON NEW YORK 2010
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Copyright © 2010 by Aaron R. Hawkins
All rights reserved. For information about permission
to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions,
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company,
215 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10003.
Houghton Mifflin Books for Children is an imprint of
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
www.hmhbooks.com
The text of this book is set in Bembo.
The illustrations were created using pen and ink.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hawkins, Aaron R.
The year money grew on trees / written and illustrated by Aaron R. Hawkins.
p. cm.
Summary: In early 1980s New Mexico, thirteen-year-old
Jackson Jones recruits his cousins and sisters to help tend
an elderly neighbor's neglected apple orchard for the chance
to make big money and, perhaps, to own the orchard.
ISBN 978-0-547-27977-0
[1. Apple growers—Fiction. 2. Farm life—New Mexico—Fiction.
3. Cousins—Fiction. 4. Brothers and sisters—Fiction. 5. Moneymaking
projects—Fiction. 6. New Mexico—History—20th century—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.H31347Ye 2010
[Fic]—dc22
2009049703
Manufactured in the United States of America
DOC 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
4500248273
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DEDICATION
To Jackrabbit for getting me started
and Kellie for getting me finished
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks to everyone who read and made
suggestions when this was still in a raw form:
Amanda K., Amy T., Carly S., Catherine S.,
Heather N., Jennifer P., Lisa S., Megan M.,
Ross M., and Sara M.
And special thanks to my super-agent,
Emily Sylan Kim, and my editor, Ann Rider.
Their guidance and vision made this
more than just a dream.
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Contents
Chapter 1 A BAD CHOICE AND A WORSE ONE [>]
Chapter 2 SAVED FROM THE SCRAP YARD [>]
Chapter 3 HELP! ANYONE? [>]
Chapter 4 NO ONE WORKS FOR FREE [>]
Chapter 5 FROSTBITE AND HARD FALLS [>]
Chapter 6 LEARNING TO DRIVE [>]
Chapter 7 WORLD'S STINKIEST SHOES [>]
Chapter 8 SAVE THE BLOSSOMS [>]
Chapter 9 WATER, THE FREE AND DANGEROUS KIND [>]
Chapter 10 POISON SHOWERS [>]
Chapter 11 SUMMER VACATION [>]
Chapter 12 DUMP BOXES AND THEY'RE ALL MINE [>]
Chapter 13 MONEY JARS [>]
Chapter 14 DOUBLE-CROSSING OLD LADY [>]
Chapter 15 NO SLEEP UNTIL WE'RE THROUGH [>]
Chapter 16 THE LAST DAY [>]
Chapter 17 BAGS OF CASH AND SECRET ENVELOPES [>]
Chapter 18 BREAKING UP AND STARTING OVER [>]
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Chapter 1
A Bad Choice and a Worse One
My dad always said that his feet were the only stupid parts of his body. They had walked him into every bad decision he had ever made, so he had to watch them carefully. He repeated that little pearl of wisdom so often that I began to take it literally and stare at my feet when they were moving. I had my eyes on them the afternoon they walked me into my career in agriculture. I blame my feet because I was only thirteen at the time and not exactly in the job market.
On that particular day, I was mostly thinking about what I could eat when I got home from school. I was trudging along the dirt lane from the bus stop while my sisters and cousins rushed past me, trying to escape the biting New Mexico wind. The lane's rutted tracks had filled with water from a snowstorm and then frozen into narrow strips of dirty ice. It felt powerful and satisfying to crush the fragile surfaces and watch the underlying brown water ooze around my shoes. I was careful to find and eliminate each of the thin ice plates that had survived the weak February sun. I imagined it sounded a little like breaking glass. Crunch, crack, crunch, SLAM!
My head shot up at the familiar sound of a screen door banging against a door frame. I had made it far enough down the lane so that I was next to the house of my neighbor Mrs. Nelson. I looked up with a guilty face, expecting to be accused of some crime involving ice breaking. Instead of Mrs. Nelson coming toward