Tyler Stoudts first assignment in sixth grade is to make a family tree. Can whatever is killing the rats be hurting Mike’s grandfather? It’s a mystery Mike urgently needs to solve in this atmospheric, fast-paced story filled with vibrant period detail. Family Tree audiobook, by Katherine Ayres. Mike is being tormented at school by a loud-mouth named Andy Simms, who calls Mike “Macaroni Boy.” But when dead rats start appearing in the streets, that name changes to “Rat Boy.” Around the same time Mike notices that his grandfather is also physically sick. Money problems only add to Mike’s worries about his beloved grandfather, who is getting forgetful and confused. But it’s 1933, and the Depression is bringing tough times to everyone. His father’s large Italian family runs a food wholesale business, and Mike is used to the sounds and smells of men working all night to unload the trains that feed the city. Mike Costa has lived his whole life in The Strip, Pittsburgh’s warehouse and factory district. Extra material: An Author’s Note is included in the back of the book. 'About this title' may belong to another edition of this title.During the Great Depression, a boy who faces bullying stumbles upon a mystery and comes of age in this novel that integrates fact and opinion and has a rich 1930’s vocabulary. 8-12) - Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. As the world of Tyler's family opens to her, the writing is consistently graceful the unfolding story will enthrall readers.

Tyler learns of her father's culture mostly by reading her mother's compassionate books and journals about the Amish she also glimpses the romance that brought her father and mother together.

Gypsy surnames which occur in Surrey include Cooper, Matthews, Ayres, Smith. In sure, deft strokes, each character emerges: Tyler's tough, wise teacher her good-hearted, tormented father her protective friend, Casey and Tyler herself. A small community of only a few families. As each discovery leads to another, Tyler is torn between sympathy for her father's pain, and anger at being cut off from the rest of her family. Custer, the toughest teacher in school, who has announced that the schoolwork for the year will revolve around one project: a family tree. When Tyler, who lives alone with her widowed father, is assigned to make a family tree, discoveries abound: Her father, Jakob Stoudt, was raised Amish, and shunned for marrying an ``English'' woman, Sarah Tyler Sarah's father rejected Jakob as ``different.'' When Sarah, pregnant, died in a car crash and the baby was born prematurely, Jakob let the Tylers believe the child was dead, too, fearing they would take her. Eleven-year-old Tyler Stoudt starts sixth grade off on the wrong foot. A poignant first novel about a girl's discovery of her father's Amish upbringing and her own family's past.

Family tree by katherine ayres