Kidliterate

An Ode To Laurel Snyder

I searched Kidliterate to find all of the other times I've reviewed Laurel Snyder's work here, and was horrified to find...none. I mentioned her awesome ANY WHICH WALL in my PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING WAIT FOR HARRY POTTER post, but other than that, no love for Laurel.

What is the matter with me??

Laurel Snyder writes like the child of Zilpha Keatley Snyder and Edward Eager, with a generous side of Judy Blume. Her books exist in worlds both real and unreal, and she is at her best when she is dabbling in a little magical realism. When I was nine or so, I would have wanted to live inside her books. I would have written her a letter about how much I loved her and I wouldn't have cared if I ever heard back. If her books had been published when I was nine, I probably would have read them in Dell Yearling editions, because she's a Random House novelist. They would have had the little horse on the top of the cover and that distinctive frame around the cover picture. I would have dog-eared them and read them over and over and never, ever loaned them to friends, because I didn't have a lot of money for books and I never wanted to risk losing them.

But I didn't have Laurel when I was nine, because Wikipedia tells me that when I was nine, Laurel was seven. So instead we were reading the same books around the same time, and we were growing up on the same coast and eating the same TastyKakes. And I grew up to be someone who puts books in the hands of kids, and Laurel grew up to be someone who writes the stories that fill some of those books.

Laurel's books sneak up on you. I don't think I realized how much I loved UP AND DOWN THE SCRATCHY MOUNTAINS (the story of Lucy the milkmaid, best friend of the prince, who's told she's "unsuitable" and goes up the mountains to find her vanished mother and her future) until I found myself talking about it almost every day in the bookstore. "Have I given you UP AND DOWN THE SCRATCHY MOUNTAINS?" I would ask young girl after young girl. If the answer was "no!" I would become appalled with myself. I WAS DEPRIVING A GIRL OF LUCY. With each subsequent handsell I found myself talking about it more and more. (Did I sell it to YOU? If not, I am sorry. I was depriving you of Lucy.)

In the summer I found myself frequently turning to the absolutely delightful ANY WHICH WALL, which is such a charming homage to Edward Eager that I find myself smiling just typing about it. The premise is simple: four bored kids find a magical wall in the middle of a cornfield; the wall transports them to other times and places. So simple. It would be so easy for a book with a plot this basically simple to be...trite. Derivative. Dull. But in Laurel's hands it turns into a perfect summer book, one that begs to be read aloud from the backseat as Mom or Dad or Adult Of Your Choice drives you down a long, long highway to the home of a relative or to a far-off campsite. I like to sell AWW with GONE-AWAY LAKE or THE SATURDAYS (assuming the reader has already plowed through Mr. Eager's books), because nothing's better than a little pile of books filled with the magic of summer, and I love selling new books alongside classic stories so that the reader can make the connections between the past and the present of storytelling. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't; either way, I find it delightful.

(I have to confess here that I have not actually read PENNY DREADFUL. I have been feeling guilty about this for about a year and a half. It is in my pile. I don't know what happened there.)

This month Laurel gave us BIGGER THAN A BREAD BOX. I needed this book when I was nine. I wish I could go back in time and give it to myself. When I was nine, I knew things were not good in my house. They never got any better. And there weren't really any books about kids like me, kids with a little brother whose parents weren't doing well; whose families were splitting apart. My friends didn't seem to be going through the same thing, either. It was a pretty lonely time, and books that helped...well, they were few and far between.

In BIGGER THAN A BREAD BOX, we meet 12 year old Rebecca. Rebecca's parents are going through a really bad patch, and her mom packs Rebecca and her brother Lew into the car and takes them from Baltimore to Atlanta to temporarily live with their grandmother. She gives Rebecca no warning about this, and suddenly, the whole world is different. But early in the trip Rebecca finds a mysterious bread box in the attic, and discovers that she can wish for anything she wants and as long as it fits in the bread box, it will appear. The wishing is amazing, but of course what Rebecca really wants can't fit in the box. She'll need to figure out other ways to cope with the changes in her world.

I wanted to hug this book, and I wanted it to hug nine-year-old me. And then I just became so, so glad that this book was in the world, and that kids who were like me back then have this kind of story to turn to. This book makes you feel like you're not alone in your suffering. I think it can help a kid make sense of their own broken world, and to see that families can break apart and still stay together in other ways. Family separation and divorce are things that are still hard to talk about, 28 years after my parents divorced. I think it's hard for kids to talk to their parents about things like this, and that makes books that deal with the subject even more important.

In the hands of another writer, this could have been a depressing, heavy-handed book. But Laurel comes along and sprinkles it with just enough magic and hope to keep it from being so, but not enough to make it sickly sweet or unrealistic. Rebecca feels so much like a real person to me, and because of that, I find making wishes and opening a bread box to find they've come true to be...believable. That's so hard. Magical realism is so hard to do right, but Laurel hits the right tone every time.

It's also so much harder to be a quiet writer than it is to be a loud one. I love the big, brassy, fantastical books that crowd the NYT bestseller list as much as the next girl, but the books that worm their way into my heart and stay there forever are always the quieter ones. The ones I know the author agonized over; the books that might have started as tiny seeds years ago and finally blossomed after long, long hours of work. The books that sneak up on me are the ones that stay with me the longest.

And more and more often, I find that they're by Laurel Snyder.

More Sci-Fi For Kids

Over at Locus Magazine, there's a great post full of sci-fi recommendations for young people written by Karen Meisner, an editor over at Strange Horizons (disclaimer: Karen and I have "known" one another online for...ever.) It's such a great idea I wanted to add some of my own.

SPACEHEADZ! by Jon Scieszka: I just spent three days with Mr. Scieszka, driving him around to five school visits and a library event, and I have to tell you - there is nothing more likely to re-inspire a children's book person like spending three days with Mr. Ambassador. Having book talked SPACEHEADZ about 25 times at 5 different schools, I can say that I am extremely familiar with this series - and I LOVE it. It's about a boy named Michael K who is starting at a new school, super nervous about fitting in and making the right friends. And who are the first two kids he meets? Bob and Jennifer, who tell them that they're aliens, and that their leader, Major Fluffy, is disguised as the class hamster. They're there to get 3.14 million + 1 Earthlings to sign on to be Spaceheadz, or their planet will shut Earth off. They're on the run from the AAA (the Anti-Alien Agency, natch) and need Michael K's help. (His response? "Please don't sit next to me.") It is awesome; perfect for reluctant boys especially, and very interactive. There are several related websites and an iPhone app I love called FLUFFY SPEAKS, where you can translate any language into Hamster. 

ALIENS ON VACATION by Clete Barrett Smith: I was thrilled when the rest of the New Voices committee agreed with me about this one, too. Scrub is forced to go stay with his grandmother for the summer, but everything changes when he learns that the B&B she runs is actually filled with portals to other planets, and she plays hosts to aliens who want to spend their vacations on Earth. 

IGNATIUS MACFARLAND: FREQUENAUT! by Paul Feig: I can never understand why this series hasn't broken out. I raved about this book back in 2008. For some reason the permalink to this post is being cranky, but if you go here and scroll down to 7/18, the review is there. I LOVE THIS BOOK.

SCIENCE FAIR by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson: super funny story of aliens who trick not-so-smart arrogant rich kids into building parts of a superweapon for their science fair project (so the aliens can then use the weapon to take over the earth), and the brilliant middle-class kids who bring the whole plot down. 

THE SEARCH FOR WONDLA by Tony DiTerlizzi: This beautifully illustrated novel tells the story of Eva Nine, a young human girl raised underground by a robot named Muthr. When her home is destroyed, Eva is forced aboveground where she learns that she is the only human on the planet. She must go on a quest to find others like her, and ultimately, a home. 

THE CITY OF EMBER by Jeanne DuPrau: Electricity powers the city of Ember, and light ends at the city's edge. But the lights are starting to go out, and there doesn't seem to be any way of stopping it - until Lina and Doon find a mysterious document that might just show them the way to save everyone. 

COSMIC by Frank Cottrell Boyce: 12-year-old Liam is tall enough to be mistaken for an adult, and cons his way into winning a contest to chaperone four other kids on a trip into outer space. What happens when the kids break the ship and look to Liam - the "adult" - to fix everything?

SIMON BLOOM: THE GRAVITY KEEPER by Michael Reisman": Simon stumbles upon the teacher's edition of his science book, which actually allows him to manipulate the laws of physics. Naturally, evil people seek said book, and Simon and his friends must keep it out of their hands.

KAPUT AND ZOSKY by Lewis Trondheim: graphic novel about two unbelievably incompetent aliens who make attempt after hapless attempt to take over the universe.

ASTRONAUT ACADEMY by Dave Roman: first in a graphic novel series about a former super hero who's just trying to blend in at the Astronaut Academy. If only it wasn't for the pesky robot doppleganger who's trying to kill him...

many books by Margaret Peterson Haddix: Haddix can satisfy many a yearning for this type of book. TURNABOUT; the SHADOW CHILDREN series; and THE MISSING series are all terrific sci-fi books for late elementary/early middle school-aged kids, and high level younger readers will love them too.

LOOKING AHEAD: Dark Eden by Patrick Carman

Dear Patrick:

I told you I didn't like scary books.

When you were here in September, I told you how I went and book-talked your books to four schools, and I told them all that SKELETON CREEK would be perfect for them if they liked scary books, but that I didn't like scary books so I had to put it down after chapter four and couldn't watch any of the videos. And what did you say?

"Melissa, just remember that it's me who wrote them! You've met me. I'm the man behind the curtain. I'm not scary!"

Or something like that.

Okay. I thought, I'm a children's bookseller! I am almost 40 years old. I can read a book designed for ages 12 and up and be just fine. Patrick is really nice. I'll just remember that, and I'll be able to get through the book.

I got to page 135. I skipped all the videos. And I freaked myself out so much I locked myself into the bedroom last night. 

DEAR PATRICK I DO NOT LIKE SCARY BOOKS THE END.

If you like scary books, this is a scary book. You may not find it all that scary, if you are a connoisseur of scary books; you may read this and think I am a wimp. I am fully prepared to accept that. I like princesses and ponies. And I can tell you, Patrick Carman is an AWESOME writer. He did exactly what he set out to do: scare the pants off me. (Yes, it is all about me.)

Oh, what's the book about, you ask? 

A guy named Will suffers from a horrible, crippling phobia. His doctor sends him off with six other teenage phobia sufferers to Fort Eden, a place meant to help people with this problem. None of the teens know anything about what's going on there...except Will. Will's been sneaking into his doctor's files, and not only knows a lot about his fellow patients, but has a lot of info about Fort Eden itself. When they're deposited there, he disappears into the woods with a backpack full of supplies, determined to observe from the outside and see what's really going on.

The teens are put into weird rooms where they are forced to face their worst fears, and when they emerge from the rooms, they seem to be cured. But of course there's more going on here than that, and Will is determined to get to the bottom of it.

Like Patrick's SKELETON CREEK, TRACKERS, and 3:15 series, DARK EDEN includes a lot of electronic content. You can go take The Fear Test. Also at that page is the awesome trailer, and a link to where you can buy the fully interactive book app. With the app you can read the book, watch videos, look at maps of Fort Eden, and really immerse yourself in the book fully. You all know I am not the biggest fan of e-books, but this one is truly special, and I absolutely appreciate what Patrick is trying to do with it: make it irresistable to teens who might have left reading behind or turning to other things. And it WORKS. He is pretty much a genius at this sort of thing, and he's got a great team working with him.

BUT IT IS STILL TOO SCARY FOR ME. I will wait for the sequel to FLOORS, thank you very much.

WITH A NAME LIKE LOVE by Tess Hilmo

Before I start writing the actual review, I feel compelled to make something clear: OKAY FOR NOW by Gary Schmidt is my Newbery pick, and has been since the moment I read it. Months ago. In manuscript. On my iPhone. Three times in a row. 

But this book is going to give it a run for its money, and justifiably so. 

Ollie Love's daddy is a traveling preacher, the kind who moves his family around the country, setting up a revival tent and bringing the Word to the far-flung masses. Ollie knows the drill by now - they'll be there three days at the most; the townspeople will come and listen; her daddy will do his best to bring the people what he thinks they need; and then the family will move on. And it used to be exciting, the life on the open road, a new town at least once a week - but Ollie's a little older now, and times are changing, and she's thinking it would be mighty nice to settle down in one place with her daddy installed in his own church and the family installed in their own house. With plumbing, and electricity, and a town school Ollie and her siblings could go to every day. Ollie believes in what her daddy does, in what her family does, but she longs for more - she just doesn't know how to say it, because the idea of disappointing her beloved father is not one she can fully contemplate.

But on their first day in BInder, Ollie meets Luke, whose mom is in jail for killing his dad. Luke tells Ollie his mom is innocent, and Ollie believes him. She also believes that the only person who could convince the town that Luke's mom is innocent is her daddy - if only she can get him to stay around long enough to do it. This 1957 Arkansas town is filled with people who believe Luke's mama was as no-good as his daddy, and that Luke is destined to follow in their footsteps. A little investigation by Ollie, however, reveals a sad story of abuse and a house where all love has been strangled into nonexistence. Her kind heart and the sense of justice her family's instilled in her will not allow her to leave Luke's story alone, and with the help of her family and a kindhearted woman in town, Mrs. Mahoney, she sets out to make things right.

Some at Goodreads have described this as "To Kill A Mockingbird for the middle-grade set." I am often reluctant to compare anything to a classic, especially such an iconic, universally beloved one as TKAM, but I don't think the comparison hurts WANLL one bit. Ollie's a marvelous, Scout-like character with a strong sense of family and a sudden devotion to social justice that is breathtaking in the way it grabs hold of her. Her view of the world changes so many times during the course of this novel, and she grows up quickly in some very important ways. You know she is going to grow up to be an extraordinary woman outside the pages of her story, and you are lucky for every moment you spend in her company within it.

I am actually tearing up all over again just thinking about this marvelous debut novel from Tess Hilmo. I was on the ABA New Voices committee this year (which will get its own post, as it happened entirely during the many months this site sat near-dormant), and when we were readying our personal picks for finalists, this book came up during the discussion. For some reason, most of us hadn't gotten a copy, and the committee members who had felt so strongly about it that they rushed us out an email version of the manuscript. By the time we all quickly finished it, I think we all knew it would make the list handily. And to think we nearly missed it!

This one will have a long, long, incredibly deserved life, and I can only say the same for Tess Hilmo's career.  

THE WIDE-AWAKE PRINCESS by E.D. Baker

I am so in love with this book. I ordered it on the strength of E.D. Baker's other books, but because I hadn't read it by the time it came out, it sat (as hardcovers I haven't read tend to do). And sat. And sat. For months. Finally in late November I plucked it off the shelf on my way out the door one night and took it home to read. Which I did in two hours. Then I promptly kicked myself - hard, while wearing steel-toed boots - for waiting so long. Oh, the lost income. Oh, the girls who could have read it already. Oh, the time I spent reading things that weren't as good.

Our heroine: Annie, younger sister of Gwendolyn; Gwendolyn's the princess cursed at birth to prick her finger on a spindle and you know the rest. So when Annie's born, her parents are so paranoid that they ask a fairy to protect her. The fairy casts this charm: From this day on, no magic shall touch you or bring you to harm. You'll have to survive on your natural charm. Annie is now impervious to all magic, which is not exactly considered a blessing in a country where everything relies on spells and charms. Everyone uses magic to make themselves "beautiful and graceful and sweet," and most members of Annie's family had been given magical gifts at their births. However, being in Annie's presence makes those gifts fade, so Annie has spent much of her life being held at arm's length by her entire family.

Annie's gift comes in handy when a miniature spinning wheel is smuggled into the palace and Gwendolyn pricks her finger, causing herself and everyone else within the walls to fall asleep - everyone, that is, except for Annie. Because she is the only one untouched by the magic, it's up to her to save her family and her kingdom. With the help of Liam (a Royal Guard who'd gone on a mission to the town and thus missed the spell) and a series of haphazard princes, Annie will outsmart some well-known fairy tale characters, wake up her family and possibly even fall in love.

THE WIDE-AWAKE PRINCESS is FUNNY. What a great read-aloud this would make. I sold a bunch of copies as Christmas gifts and I am going to sell the absolute crap out of it in paperback; there won't be a girl who shops at our store who won't have this book. Annie is a fantastic character - I always need a great book with a self-rescuing princess. Baker weaves a bunch of bits of well-known fairy tales into the story and it's so much fun picking them out. This book is a total romp and I love it to pieces and I can't wait to read it to my daughter someday. Sometimes when I like a book I just keep the galley, but this one? I'm buying it in hardcover.

(Oh! And the cover! Thecoverthecoverthecover! I LOVE the cover. The galley had a photo cover and I am SO. OVER. photo covers and when the book came I was so happy to see they'd changed it! Yay!)

LOOKING AHEAD: The Last Little Blue Envelope by Maureen Johnson

About six years ago, I fell in love with a book--hard.

Sarah and I sped through it like madwomen; I got my first blurb on the Indie Next List for it; and then it came out and we sold it. And sold it. And sold it. We handsold that sucker to every teen girl and teen girl's mom that walked through the door, and over the years, we've continued to handsell it (first together, and now apart...sniff). That book was THIRTEEN LITTLE BLUE ENVELOPES by Maureen Johnson, and it remains one of my favorite YA novels ever. 

So when the ARC of THE LAST LITTLE BLUE ENVELOPE showed up in the box from my Harper rep, my heart sank more than a little. TLBE was fine on its own. I didn't need to know what had happened to Ginny. I was fine with her story being finished (or unfinished, whatever). Couldn't anyone leave well enough alone? Why did everything have to have a sequel? One would be better off asking, "Why didn't you just trust Maureen?" Turns out finishing Ginny's story is a good thing. Turns out I'm pretty darn happy to have the sequel in the world.

I don't want to say much, because if you haven't read TLBE, you should read that first. You absolutely have to read it first. If you've read it, you can sleep soundly knowing that our Ginny is back and better than ever. There's a new, strange boy in her life (not by her choice), and he's the one who pushes her out on her new adventure. There's an old boy, too, causing problems. There's a possible new friend and a whole new series of trips to take. Turns out you open up THE LAST LITTLE BLUE ENVELOPE and it's like opening the door to an old friend. Thanks, Maureen, for the sequel I didn't know I wanted until I had it.

THRESHOLDS by Nina Kiriki Hoffman

When Maya's best friend Stephanie died from cancer, her world fell apart. When her father's job became uncertain, he and her mother took the opportunity to give the family a fresh start and moved from Iowa to Oregon. There are a lot of different things about their new town, including the people who live in the apartment building next door (who dress strangely and stick close to home) and, oh yeah, there's the fairy that flies into Maya's room one night. When Maya wakes up the next morning, she thinks it was a dream - until she finds gold sparkly dust on the sheets. And the strange just keeps on coming: she meets her next door neighbors, and they use words she's never heard of; a strange boy keeps asking her where the portal is; her neighbors are able to smell the fairy dust on her. Finally, at the end of her first day in her new school, Portal Boy shows up again and gets her to agree to take care of something he's stolen. Now she has a magical egg in her wrist, which is going to hatch into...something. Her next door neighbors are the only people with the power necessary to help her: they are the guardians of portals to other worlds, including the one where her egg came from. They've opened a door to another world for Maya, and it is one that will change her forever. This is my first Nina Kiriki Hoffman novel (and her first for kids), but it won't be my last. I LOVED this. I think the best thing about this (besides the fantastic writing) is that it's not really fantasy, and it's not really science fiction. It is an incredibly cool mix of the two, very unlike anything else I've read and yet comfortably set in our modern world with a main character anyone can relate to. Maya's grief over Stephanie gently powers a lot of her actions, which gives the whole book an undercurrent that really showcases Hoffman's writing. It's an incredibly realistic portrayal of adolescent emotion, which is unusual in a book in this genre. I also loved watching Maya deal with her troubles partially through art, taking everything down in her omnipresent sketchpad. So not only do we have fantasy, scifi, wonderful writing, and compelling characters, but we also have messages of the importance of art in our lives and of the power of grief. It's a lot to fit into one middle-grade book, but Hoffman makes it look effortless. Sequel, please.

I AM NUMBER FOUR by Pittacus Lore

I could boil this review down to five words:  THIS BOOK RULES THE WORLD. or how about THIS BOOK ROCKED MY SOCKS. or GIVE ME THE SEQUEL NOW. or OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG. Any of those, really. I tore through this book today and am now completely obsessed. COMPLETELY. When a publisher puts the kind of push behind a book like HarperCollins has done with this book, it often ends up feeling like smoke and mirrors. This book, however, deserves the massive amount of hype that it has gotten. Have I mentioned that it's awesome? Lorien is a planet three hundred million miles away from Earth. Its entire population was killed by another race (the Mogadorians) - except for nine gifted children and their guardians. The 18 survivors fled to Earth where they have been hiding among us, waiting to grow into their Legacies (special powers that many of the Lorien people possess), fight the Mogadorians, and return to revive their home planet. A two-part charm was put on the children before they left: they can only be killed in a certain order, and because of their link, each instantly knows if one of their kind has been killed. Our protagonist is Number Four, fifteen years old, and at the beginning of the book, he has just learned that Number Three has died.  John (his new alias) and his guardian, Henri, flee their current home for a small town in Ohio. They move constantly, changing identities, locations, schools in their ongoing attempt to elude the Mogadorians who followed them to Earth. Their life is one of constant vigilance, and it is a life that "John" has tired of as he has gotten older. At his new school, he clashes immediately with the football star and crushes on the star's ex-girlfriend, which leads to a series of events that threaten to expose him for who he truly is. As his Legacies finally begin to develop, as does his new relationship, he becomes less and less certain that the way he is leading his life is sustainable. And every day, Henri becomes more convinced that the evil they are fleeing is growing closer. This is one of those novels that you can't describe in too much depth because one tiny spoiler could ruin everything. So I can tell you this: it's a long book (440 pages) yet there's not one wasted word. The characters are flawed and believable and familiar in the best of ways. The twists surprised me and the bad guys are both original and scary. And the writing is SO GOOD. Imagine my surprise when I Googled Pittacus Lore and learned that he is two people: a writer named Jobie Hughes..and JAMES FREY. Yes, that James Frey. People are surprising me every day in the world of young adult fiction; today is no different. Like the best of collaborative works, I have no idea where one author begins and the other ends. I am, it must be said, a little desperate for the sequel to I AM NUMBER FOUR. I recommend joining me in my obsession as soon as possible. After all, there are still eleven days left until the release of MOCKINGJAY.

GIMME A CALL by Sarah Mlynowski

Imagine dropping your cell phone into a fountain, and when you get it back, it's broken - except it's not. Now instead of calling everyone you know, it only calls one person: you, at age fourteen. What would you tell yourself? Once Devi gets her younger self to believe that it's actually her on the phone, she sees the connection as her chance to fix everything that's gone wrong in her life. She convinces YoungerDevi to do everything from study harder (so they get into a better college) to convince OlderDevi's former best friend to not get plastic surgery. And, most importantly, she convinces YoungerDevi not to go out with Brian, the boy Devi spent her entire high school life with; the boy she lost all of her friendships over; the boy who just broke her heart. But there's no perfect way to mess with time, as both Devis quickly discover. Even as the college acceptance letter tacked to the wall morphs into one from a better school several times, the tiniest actions on the part of YoungerDevi affect OlderDevi's life in unexpected (and often horrifying) ways. Now she needs YoungerDevi to fix her present as well as her past - but how far is too far? Will she ever be content with things as they are? I thought this was a great read. Like OlderDevi, I have a list of things I'd like YoungerMelissa to go back and change - in theory. What would I give up from my present life in order to have some things I missed out on because of what YoungerMelissa chose to do? (What a great book club book this is.) The most interesting part of the whole thing, to me, is that I infinitely preferred YoungerDevi to OlderDevi, and definitely saw the merit in YoungerDevi getting to make changes in time to fix her future. There's a lot of humor here - sometimes YoungerDevi's decision whips OlderDevi out of one life and into another with absolutely no notice, to hilarious effect. I wish that OlderDevi had had a more indepth realization that she really screwed up her life - that she did it to herself - rather than just insisting that YoungerDevi fix everything. There are moments of reflection, but I wanted them to go farther than they did. Overall, though, this is a really good read (especially for summer) that will make anyone think about the choices they've made and are making in their life. And with the exception of a little underage drinking, it's clean. I definitely recommend it.

YOURS TRULY, LUCY B. PARKER (Book One): GIRL VS SUPERSTAR by Robin Palmer

The school year is almost over. Summer is coming. Kids are going to reluctantly troop into the shop to buy their assigned summer reading, and most of them will be looking for something to counteract it. Something...lighter. More fun. Less...assign-y. Less...mandatory. And just in time, along comes Miss Lucy B. Parker. Charming, flawed, sympathetic main character? Check. Lighthearted writing that nevertheless has some substance behind it? Check. Squeaky clean without feeling babyish? Check. Available in paperback? Check. Lucy B. Parker sends emails to tv host Dr. Maude (presumably a Dr. Phil-esque advice giver) about the trials and travails of her sixth grade life, and the emails are scattered throughout the tale of same. As if it wasn't hard enough starting sixth grade without her two BFFs, who friend-dumped her - on the phone - from the mall - right before school started! - her mother is now dating the father of the most famous young actress/singer on the planet (think Miley Cyrus early in the Hannah Montana years). Lucy's been going through one embarrassing time after another and now she's facing life as the far less attractive, appealing and talented stepsister of the most famous girl on the planet. How much worse can her life get? This novel is charming as all get out and a complete no-brainer handsell. I'm predicting it will be a summer bestseller for me.  Over the last couple of years I have very much enjoyed selling Robin Palmer's fairy-tale based contemporary YA novels, which I have happily been selling to tweens due to their lack of very older content. Now it's lovely to see Ms. Palmer turning her hand to novels truly aimed at the tween market, which just seems to be exploding. I love having books that I can hand to anyone without a second thought - reader, mom, grandmother, aunt, birthday gift giver. I love having paperback original series. I love tweeniness. I can't wait for Lucy's next adventure!