Synopsis "Darius and the Toadlady"
The kids next door think he's crazy. Even his parents worry about him. Darius Hager, at nine, is afraid to cross Main Street which gives him nightmares. But he must cross the street. He's told everyone that there is a mysterious world of gypsies, peasants, pirates, and outlaws waiting to be discovered on the other side of Main Street. Darius must find these exotic people to prove he's not crazy. He braces his courage and crosses one Saturday morning. There he finds a world just like his own neighborhood with houses, mowed lawns, clean hedges, station wagons, and gray-suited Dads. The exotic people have escaped Darius' detection. He figures they're hiding in the shadows. Then he encounters his soon-to-be 4th grade teacher, the Toadlady Mrs. Earnhardt. Now Darius confronts a greater mystery than he imagined. Who is this nice woman who tells him stories about the exotic world of her European childhood? Is she really the Toadlady who who terrifies the kids at school? Or is she another vulnerable and frightened soul, just like the kids she teaches? Then Darius discovers the secrets that she hides from her kids, the school, the community. She vows to destroy him by flunking him from the fourth grade, recommending he be medicated, and enrolling him in special ed among the broken spirits cast aside by the school system. Darius must stop this brilliant, vicious, and insane woman from crushing him. But he's just a child, and she is a family friend, well positioned in the community, with limitless authority to influence the lives of children. In the end, Darius must confront this monster. At the same time, he must confront his loneliness and his deepest fears.
