Amaze your friends!

There are so many secrets behind Martha's books! You can look at them all, or if you like, choose a single book!

1,000 Reasons Never to Kiss a Boy

Martha's oldest daughter Sylvie got her first job at age 14 at Irving's Bagels on College Avenue in State College, Pennsylvania. Seymour's Bagels is a lot like Irving's, except the owners are much younger than Seymour. Sadly, there is no big football kickoff parade in State College each year, but there is a homecoming parade that's almost as much fun.

Who Stole Uncle Sam?

Careful readers will notice that this book is dedicated to the State College American All Stars of 2007. Martha's one and only son, Ethan, played on this team. Martha spent so many hours watching baseball that summer, she figured she'd better call it research and put baseball into a book. Like Alex's mom, Martha has had many conversations about laundry with other baseball moms.

Mrs. Wow Never Wanted a Cow

Martha doesn't know anyone named Mrs.Wow, but while she was working on this book, her daughter Rosa was attending summer camp at Hameau Farm in Belleville, Pennsylvania. Hameau is a working dairy farm run by a wonderful woman named Audrey Gay Rodgers. Martha suspects her subconscious was thinking of Ms. Rodgers when she created Mrs. Wow.

The Year My Parents Ruined My Life

Read this book, and you will notice there are a lot of snow-shoveling scenes, and the sound the shovel makes — crunch-scrape — repeats. That is because Martha came up with the idea for the book one January day when she was shoveling snow.

The Trouble with Twins

Like William, who is Holly's stepfather and the twins' father, Martha is a tiny bit obsessive about getting her cup of espresso every day, and she owns a stovetop espresso pot exactly like his. When you read the book, you will see that these pots can be dangerous!

Fourth-Grade Weirdo

Martha's children all attended Easterly Parkway Elementary School in State College, Pennsylvania, and all of them had Mr. William Long as a teacher. Mr. William Long, like Mr. Dorian Ditzwinkle, sometimes does handstands in front of his students to get their attention. Mr. Long is not, however, especially absent-minded, and he does not have a round belly.

The Trouble with Cats

Martha's family was taking care of four very active Siamese cats for friends in New York. One night the cats were so noisy dashing and leaping around the apartment that they kept Martha awake. While she lay in bed being annoyed with them, she came up with the idea for this book.

The Trouble with Babies

One day Martha saw a man riding a bicycle with a big silver box strapped to the back. She was dying to know what that box was, but she never found out. In this book, the box has grown a little and moved to Dr. X's back yard.

Who Stole Grandma's Million-Dollar Pumpkin Pie?

Like Dad in the book, Martha has a green recipe binder that is a well-organized mess. It contains family recipes including chocolate birthday cake, just like the one Dad makes in the book. One more secret: The book is dedicated to Martha’s friend, Bob Decker. He made a video of her baking a pie and put it on Youtube.

Who Stole Halloween?

Martha was almost done writing this book when she realized you couldn't really have a story about Halloween that didn't have a haunted house in it. So she added a haunted house, which meant rewriting the whole book.

Who is Stealing the 12 Days of Christmas?

Martha and her family live in State College, Pennsylvania, a town that is pretty similar to College Springs, the town in the book.