The Saturday Market

Every Saturday morning, Bellweather changes. For a few hours, an ordinary row of old buildings becomes the Saturday Market-a noisy little world run mostly by children. There are warm cinnamon rolls and strawberry drinks, bracelets and blind boxes, arguments over trading cards, things nobody needs and things everybody suddenly wants. Emily and Sarah love it. Then, almost by accident, they discover that people will pay them to deliver things. Bellweather Express begins with two bicycles and a birthday cake. Soon the girls are racing down hills with whipped cream, delivering princess tiaras to birthday parties, discovering shortcuts through streets they thought they knew, and riding through summer rain with other people's packages tucked beneath their ponchos. And they begin making money. For Emily, the Market starts to look different. A Saturday becomes a total. A bicycle ride becomes a route. Waiting becomes wasted time. When she falls in love with a blue instant camera she can't afford, every delivery brings her a little closer to having it. But Sarah still wants to stop for purple lemonade. She wants to see who found the secret blind box. She wants a cinnamon roll before they're gone. She spends twelve dollars on a ridiculous little creature that does absolutely nothing-and thinks it was worth every penny. As the summer passes, the two friends begin discovering that money is a strange way of measuring things. What is a photograph worth if you're too busy to take it? Is the fastest way across Bellweather always the best one? When does something you love doing become work? And once you finally have enough, how do you know what "enough" is? The Saturday Market is a Bellweather story about friendship, ambition, money, wanting, and the things whose value can't be written on a price tag.