The Boy on the Porch by Sharon Creech Page B

not in their room or in the kitchen. They found him by the front door, weakly scratching at it.
    â€œLet him out, John, the poor thing—”
    John had barely opened the door when the dog scooted through the opening, his nails clicking and sliding on the wood. They hadn’t seen him move so fast in months.
    And then they saw what he was after.
    There, asleep in the old cushioned chair on the porch, was a young man, and beside him was a guitar, a paint box, and a blank canvas.
    He was back .

Credits
    cover art © 2013 by Zdenko Basic
    cover design by Kate Engbring

Copyright
    T HE BOY ON THE PORCH . Copyright © 2013 by Sharon Creech. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
    www.harpercollinschildrens.com
----
    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
    ISBN 978-0-06-189235-6 (trade bdg.) — ISBN 978-0-06-189237-0 (lib. bdg.)
    EPub Edition July 2013 ISBN 9780062207777
----
    13 14 15 16 17 CG/RRDH 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

    First Edition

About the Publisher
    Australia
    HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
    Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street
    Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
    http://www.harpercollins.com.au
    Canada
    HarperCollins Canada
    2 Bloor Street East - 20th Floor
    Toronto, ON, M4W, 1A8, Canada
    http://www.harpercollins.ca
    New Zealand
    HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand) Limited
    P.O. Box 1
    Auckland, New Zealand
    http://www.harpercollins.co.nz
    United Kingdom
    HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
    77-85 Fulham Palace Road
    London, W6 8JB, UK
    http://www.harpercollins.co.uk
    United States
    HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
    10 East 53rd Street
    New York, NY 10022
    http://www.harpercollins.com