The Raspberry Room

By Alison Lohans and Gillian Newland

In behind the raspberry bushes is a special place, a place Abby doesn't trust to just anyone. Then she looks through a knothole in the fence and right into a blue, blue eye. A toy tractor appears on her side of the fence and she pokes her little brother's stuffed blue monkey into the hole. The next morning she finds it with its tail ripped off. Who does the blue eye belong to?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
• Release date: Mar 1, 2006
• ISBN: 9781551436128

Alison Lohans

Alison Lohans began making up stories when she was five, and knew at age nine that her calling was to be a writer. Born and raised in Reedley, California, she did her undergraduate work at Whittier College and California State University, Los Angeles. Soon afterwards, she immigrated to Canada in 1971 with her late husband. They spent five years in British Columbia (where her husband completed his Ph.D., and Alison earned her Postgraduate Diploma in Elementary Education while working as a pharmacy assistant). They then moved to Regina, Saskatchewan.Over the decades since Alison's first YA novel was published by Scholastic Canada in 1983, she has published 26 books for young people with Canadian and international presses. These books range from picture books, early chapter books, middle-grade novels, and on up to mature YA novels. Her YA novel This Land We Call Home (Pearson Education New Zealand, 2007) won the 2008 Saskatchewan Book Award for YA fiction, and many of her other books have been finalists for provincial, national, and international awards. Alison has done over a thousand readings of her works in schools and libraries across Canada, and still loves connecting with readers in this way.In addition to her books, Alison writes short fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. For decades she longed to write contemporary romance, and finally gathered up the courage to give it a try. She has taught writing and mentored other writers; she's taught instrumental music; completed her M.Ed. degree; done a bit of editing; and served as Writer-in-Residence at Regina Public Library in 2002-03. She has also served on countless boards of arts groups at local, provincial and national levels. Alison was awarded the 2012 Regina YWCA Woman of Distinction Award for her contributions to the arts.Alison treasures her connections with her writing groups: the Children's Writers' Round Robin; the Saskatchewan Romance Writers; the Saskatchewan Writers' Guild; CANSCAIP; and The Writers' Union of Canada.For fun, she plays cello, cornet and recorder in community groups, has resumed piano lessons after a decades-long hiatus, and occasionally sings in choirs. International travel is very high on the list of things Alison loves doing - and in some instances, books have been sparked by visits to new places.Regina has been home to Alison since 1976, where she lives with her dog Sebastian and two finches.

Reviews for The Raspberry Room

[kwiggi3 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I thoroughly enjoyed this chapter book about an adventurous little girl. This book gave a good message about how kids today should be. Still using their imaginations, not afraid to get a little dirty playing outside, something that many children today sadly do not do as much of due to technology. The big idea of this book was to show how far just your imagination could take you. I like how the author used Laura’s character to show the way in which most children are and how opposite Abby is from the typical. The author showed this by explaining how Laura did not like to play and imagine but would rather swing and jump, etc. I also like how the book read just how Abby was thinking. “Why didn’t Laura want to see it? And who was the person in the yard next door” It gave a true sense for how quirky and eccentric Abby is with her thoughts bouncing about. Abby goes through many different times of trouble and then trying to find. The writing was very engaging and entertaining due to the way the author used short descriptive sentences, which is also good for elementary readers to begin with. I would have liked to see some sort of illustrations however. Illustrations just help give the reader a clearer image of what is occurring in the story. Overall this book was entertaining and gave a good message to its audience.