“Welcome to Jumbo, Texas, home to the most memorable cast of characters you’ll ever meet. And home to the Monroe family. Everything is all lined up in Merilee Monroe’s life - including her prized collection of Pez dispensers - and if anything is out of order she gets, as Grandma Birdy would say, all “nervy.” To Merilee, a derailment from her Very Ordered Existence feels like being on fire.
And then two strangers come to town. Biswick and Veraleen not only derail the V.O.E., they just about obliterate it. And how does Merilee put out the fire? A beautiful, deeply moving, and often comic novel about love, redemption, finding one’s place in the world, and the power of family.”
“Mama says change is God’s way of showing us a tender miracle, kinda like the chocolate inside a Tootsie Pop.”
"I predict this book will be treated seriously as one of the finest works in children’s literature to be published this year." -Claire Rosser, KLIAAT
"First time novelist Crowley proves herself a virtuoso at creating an ensemble cast richly adorned with quirky particulars, and several chapter openings have an emphatic absurdity that makes them beg to be read aloud." - The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
Dear Reader:
This is my first novel, and it’s very close to my heart. Someone once said that an author’s first book is invariably semiautobiographical, and it’s true. The Very Ordered Existence of Merilee Marvelous is a heartfelt collage of my experiences growing up in Texas, the interesting characters I’ve met and known, and the tall tales of small-town life told to me by my father and grandmother. But more personally, it’s a valentine to my brilliant teenage daughter Caitlin who was the inspiration for Merilee’s love of dragons.
For many years I’d been thinking of writing a book about my daughter, but the spark never quite ignited. Finally, several things propitiously came together. When my daughter was in fifth grade, her teacher Mr. Reed used to tell her to “Come back from Dragonland, Caitlin,” when she was daydreaming. She was always drawing dragons, and when she wasn’t drawing them, she was thinking about them.
When he told me this at a teacher’s conference, I knew at that very moment what my book was going to be about – a special girl obsessed with dragons and living in her own world of emotional detachment and monotonous schedules. But the setting would have to be very special, strong, and magical. A place where one could find one’s “dragrons,” or hope in the world. Several months later, I visited Marfa, Texas, for a women’s only retreat. One night we went to see the famous Marfa Lights, and they were there, dancing mysteriously, winking at me in the sky. I knew then that my book would be set in beautiful, mystical West Texas, a place where magic can happen.
I hope you find faith, hope, and a little bit of magic in your life.
Happy reading.
