Girls In Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood

Brashares, Ann. Girls In Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood. 2005. 338p. ISBN 0-385-72935-9. Available at FIC BRA on the library shelves.

For a second summer in a row, the magical pants that four best friends share helped them survive being apart. Now that they have graduated from high school and are ready to head off on their own to four different colleges miles apart from each other, Tibby, Lena, Carmen and Bridget once again decide to split custody of the pants. From the last day of school to a day at the beach to celebrate their last day together, summer has never felt so short.

Carmen is surprised to discover that her mother is pregnant and expecting a child with her new husband David just as she’s leaving their apartment. Happy at having a little brother but fearing being replaced, Carmen considers changing her choice of colleges to be closer to home so she can help out. Tired of babysitting, she agrees to work with Lena’s grandmother, taking her to appointments and keeping her company.

Tibby is ready for film school, and works at the movie theatre this summer, but what felt new and exciting has become repetitive. Her relationship with Brian is complicated, and she still misses Bailey. Her three-year-old sister is on the move, and in a moment of inattention she falls out of Tibby’s window while reaching for the apple tree, and ends up in the hospital. Tibby experiences guilt and feels responsible for her sister’s accident.

Lena’s enrollment in a summer art program and her future projects at art school are threatened when her father walks in during a modeling session when a fully nude male model sits on a stool in the middle of the room for all to see. The death of her grandfather last year has led to her grandmother living with them, much to everyone’s discomfort. Grandmother would rather not be here at all, but back in Greece in her home, even thought it would be lonely. Plus, she still thinks of Kostos.

Bridget returns to camp, but runs into Eric who also happens to be there as a counselor. Worse, they both have to work together. She has pursued him relentlessly when she was fifteen, but now at seventeen she’s wiser. Yet, she retains the hope that maybe they will connect. But now it’s her turn to be pursued by one of the male campers, and she immediately feels bad for her actions two summers ago.

As the girls navigate their last summer before moving out, their relationships will change yet will remain as strong as ever.

The Second Summer of the Sisterhood

Brashares, Ann. The Second Summer of the Sisterhood. Book 2 of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. 2003. 373p. ISBN 0-385-72934-0. Available at FIC BRA on the library shelves.

Last summer a pair of jeans from the thrift store saved four girls from a terrible summer apart. At nearly seventeen, the four friends find themselves heading in different directions again. Lena will be working all summer. She and Kostos broke off their relationship, but she soon discovers that Kostos has come to the United States to pursue an internship in New York City. They can see each other every weekend, when he will make the trip down to Washington. Kostos, however, has a secret that will crush Lena.

Tibby is attending a summer program at Williamson College. There she struggles with acceptance by friends she perceives as cooler, and ignores Brian’s overture towards more than friendship. It takes making a mockery of her mother for her first production to realize that the story she really should tell is Bailey’s, her young friend who died of leukemia last summer.

Bridget dropped out of soccer during the year, blowing her chance at scholarship from a big university. When she discovers letters her maternal grandmother wrote her family, she decides she must reconnect with her and learn more about her own dead mother. She travels to Alabama, where she pretends to be someone else but soon finds herself living under that new identity with her grandmother, helping her clean the attic and removing personal memories that help Bee reconstruct a better view of her mother. As the same time, her abandonment of soccer was premature.

Last summer Carmen made an impression on Krista, her step-sister. Krista runs away to live with Carmen. At the same time, Christina, Carmen’s mother, re-enters the dating scene with a co-worker, throwing Carmen for a loop. Has she been holding her mother back all this time?

Through it all, the four best friends exchange the jeans. For the first part of the summer, the jeans are not used, but when Christina wears them Carmen throws a fit and decides to break her relationship with David so she will not be left alone. As the summer progresses, however, and as each girl’s relationship deepens, the jeans once again help make everything right. And as tragedy strikes, all four friends will be reunited and able to support each other.

Well, That Was Awkward

Vail, Rachel. Well, That Was Awkward. 2017. 314p. 375 mins. ISBN 978-0-670-01308-1. Available at FIC VAI on the library shelves and as an audiobook on Overdrive.

Gracie can never be mad, or sad, or angry. Not to her friends, not to herself, and especially not to her parents. Gracie had a sister she never knew. Brett died at the age of 7 when she was hit by a car while playing in the street. After her death her parents moved from Boston to New York, and a few years later Gracie was born. Gracie has always felt the weight of Brett’s absence. The perfect child, Brett was everything Gracie was not. As the new child, Gracie tries to emulate Brett, but it’s hard to live up to her parents’ expectations. Not wanting to disappoint them, she tries to be happy all the time.

When the subjects of death, sisters, or siblings comes up, Gracie always try to steer the conversation away from the topic. It’s during one of those conversations that Gracie notices that A.J. has become extremely good looking, enough to stop her from breathing. What happened? Lovable A.J. has turned into the most attractive boy at her school, and now Gracie is completely smitten. Unfortunately, she quickly discovers that A.J. is more interested in Sienna, her best friend, than in her. Disappointed, Gracie is nonetheless happy to help Sienna begin a texting relationship with A.J. Helped with best friend Emmett, they manage to get the two of them together.

But sometimes, being the supportive friend who’s always second is not good enough. And this is one of those times. As Gracie gets ready to turn 14, twice as old as Brett, she’s feeling the winds of change. It’s time for Gracie to face the music, and realize that she has the right to be angry and sad sometimes, and that she always deserves happiness, even if that means being her own awkward person and not someone else.

Short

Sloan, Holly Goldberg. Short. 2017. 296p. ISBN 978-0-399-18621-9. Available at FIC SLO on the library shelves.

Julia mourns the death of her dog Ramon. He had grown up with her and been there for the last five years, and now a heart attack has ended his life. When a production of the Wizard of Oz arrives in town, her mother decides to sign up both her younger brother Randy and Julia to be Munchkins. Julia is not thrilled at all. First, she was looking forward to a summer of freedom, writing to her friends who have gone on vacation, and spending time putting together a memory book of Ramon. Plus, Julia really has a problem with the word short, which Munchkins are. See, Julia’s growth has just not caught up with the fact that she’s a teenager now, and not a child. Julia’s brother Randy, who is still a child, is taller than she is. And she’s heard her parents talk about the fact that she’s very short and they fervently hope she will grow up. So does Julia.

On the first day of auditions, Julia discover Shawn Barr, an acclaimed and award winning director, and suddenly her outlook on the play changes. Maybe this will be a good summer after all. Julia meets Olive, a short person who is guaranteed a role as a Munchkin, along with two other short people. She meets her neighbor, Mrs. Chang, who turns out to be a costumer and who creates a fantastic costume for Julia’s Munchkin role. She’s so good that she’s asked to designed the winged monkeys as well.

As rehearsal days pass and as the show gets closer, Julia finds herself growing both in confidence and in maturity, if not physically. Offered another role as a winged monkey, Julia is scared at first of the flying contraption but she conquers her fear. And through it all, Julia realizes that height is not necessary for success and for happiness, and that endings do not stop but are really the beginning of something better!

When My Sister Started Kissing

Frost, Helen. When My Sister Started Kissing. 2017. 193p. ISBN 978-0-374-30303-7. Available at FIC FRO on the library shelves.

When Claire and Abigail’s mother died, the family was heartbroken. Spending every summer at a cabin on the lake, the sisters saw comforting reminders of their mother everywhere. Now that it is summer again, they dread returning to the lake. Their father has remarried, and his new wife is pregnant with their half-brother. Worse, all signs of their mother, from her old easel to her favorite chair to the board games and her books have disappeared from the cabin.

For Claire, however, all of these changes are nothing compared to what is happening with her sister Abigail, who insists on being called Abi. This summer, Abi is boy crazy, and her secrets mean that Claire must cover for her. Unsure of herself, Claire can’t help but wonder why Abi would act this way. As the summer progresses, and as Abi’s affections seem to be divided between two different boys, Claire decides she can’t make excuses for her anymore. But as their family seems to be drifting apart, the lake imparts lessons that just because things are changing doesn’t mean that they will not remain meaningful.

Written in verse, this short book features three points of view, that of Claire, Abi, and of the lake itself observing the sisters. A coming of age novel, readers interested in family relationships will appreciate the dynamics that are at play between two sisters struggling with new feelings and emotions.

Talk to Me

Ellis, Sonia. Talk to Me. 2016. 164p. ISBN 978-1-943431-23-6. Available at FIC ELL on the library shelves.

Fourteen-year-old Sadina Reyes loves her sister, but seven-year-old Maddie suffers from selective mutism,  which results in her not talking very much to her own family members, and never to a stranger. This causes problems for Maddie at school, and Sadina’s friends know her as the girl who doesn’t speak. Sadina would really love to help her sister, but she’s not sure what she can do.

Sadina loses Maddie at the mall after she and Rio, her best friend, go into a computer store, and it takes forever to find her at the pet store. Worse, that night someone breaks into Sadina’s house and steals something out of her mother’s office desk, and Maddie is the only one who notices the robber. The event traumatizes her and now she can’t even talk to her family. Her mother, who is an engineer working on a brand new battery for cellphones, reveals that the only thing that has been stolen is her coworker’s phone, who had left it at the house after dinner the previous night. On that phone was the only evidence that Flynn has been embezzling money from the lab where they both work, and now Sabina’s mother is about to take the rap for the missing money.

Meanwhile, expensive software has disappeared from the school’s computer lab, and Rio is the prime suspect. It doesn’t help when Sabina remembers that Rio had been eyeing this software with envy at the computer store, and her suspicious increase when she discovers that he has installed the same software on his computer at home.

Now she’s got to help her mother by proving that Maddie has seen that the thief was Flynn, and that Rio did in fact not steal the software. Working with the computer club at school, Sadina hopes that they can reprogram Maddie’s cat robot, named Bella, into a cat that can actually talk to her through artificial intelligence and record her answer. If Maddie won’t speak to humans, maybe she’ll speak to Bella! At least, that’s what Sadina hopes...

A Month of Mondays

Anthony, Joëlle. A Month of Mondays. 2017. 336p. ISBN 978-1-77260-026-1. Available at FIC ANT on the library shelves.

At 13, Suze Tamaki’s life is nothing special. A middle school student relegated to regular English classes with the burnouts and the lazies, Suze lives with her father and her seventeen-year-old hockey-loving sister Tracie in a dingy and small apartment in a nondescript building. Suze’s mother, Caroline, left them and moved to Vancouver when Suze was three, and she has had no contact with her since, aside from a monthly child support check that doesn’t even cover the basic expenses.

Imagine her surprise, then, when she is contacted by Caroline, who has just moved back to Victoria for her work and who wishes to establish a relationship with her daughters, after more than ten years away. Tracie is deadly set against even meeting with her mother for reasons of her own, and is mad at Suze for even contemplating this possibility. Her father is also lukewarm to the idea, while her aunt Jean, who has acted more as Suze’s mother than Caroline ever did, is not happy that Caroline has returned in her nieces’ lives. Only uncle Bill takes Caroline’s side and agrees that Suze should give her a chance.

As if this is not already life changing, Suze gets transferred to Mr. Baker’s Honors English class so she can work with her friend Amanda on a presentation to the school board regarding the elimination of the school custodians’ positions and their replacement by cheaper subcontractors. Already known to be a troublemaker at school, Suze’s new project runs afoul of Principal Farbinger and leads to more scrutiny. Somehow, Suze’s normal life has become more like a month of consecutive Mondays.

Suze has never cared before, neither for school nor for her mother, but now she finds herself intrigued by the possibilities. With best friends Leah, Jessica and Amanda at her side, Suze is ready to take the plunge and see if she can trust her mother not to abandon her again while reaching excellence in her English class.

Outrun the Moon

Lee, Stacey. Outrun the Moon. 2016. 391p. 607 mins. Available as an audiobook from Overdrive.

Mercy Wong is dedicated to achieving her goal of owning her own enterprise and pulling her family out of poverty. Living with her little brother, her mother, and her father in a small apartment in San Francisco’s Chinatown in 1906, Mercy experiences daily discrimination. Her father runs a laundromat and works sixteen hours a day, seven days a week. Her younger brother is sick and frequently needs medicines. Her mother is a fortune teller who has predicted her own death. Americans dislike the Chinese and have closed off their borders to more Chinese immigration, so even though Mercy is born in the United States and therefore a citizen, she’s considered an alien by the local population.

Having read and thoroughly internalized a treatise on business, Mercy embarks on a mission to join the most prestigious high school for girls in San Francisco, the St. Clare’s School for Girls, where the scions of San Francisco’s rich families go to perfect their education and social graces before meeting a husband. Mercy, however, plans on developing her business acumen and make contacts. Her friend Tom, whom she is romantically interested in, wants to build air machines and refuses to join his father in his herbalist business, planning instead to move to Seattle to work with a certain individual named Boeing.

Mercy convinces Mister Du Lac, a board member of the school and the owner of the most prestigious chocolate maker in the country to help her join the school. She has to pretend to be a Chinese heiress even though she’s never been to China and doesn’t know many of her culture’s more refined customs. None of that deters Mercy, however, who will persevere through mean girls at the boarding school, a strict and disciplinarian headmistress, and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fires that destroy most of the city to achieve her goals of not only succeeding in American society but changing it as well. Filled with humor, this book provides a great look at a relatively unknown period of American history.

Geekerella

Poston, Ashley. Geekerella. 2017. 320p. ISBN 978-1-59474-947-6. Available at FIC POS on the library shelves.

In this modern-day retelling of Cinderella,Elle, whom only her stepmother call Danielle, lives in Charleston, South Carolina with her two wicked twin step-sisters, wicked Chloe and quiet Calliope. Her mother died when she was four, and she has only the vaguest memories. Robin Wittimer, her father, on the other hand, died a few years ago after remarrying with Catherine and her own two daughters, and now Elle is stuck in a house she technically own but with a guardian who doesn’t really care or love her.

Her parents were huge Starfield fans, and her father even founded ExcelsiCon in Atlanta. Following his death, however, Catherine has banished mentions of this hobby beneath the dignity of her ambitions. Elle is left with a blog where she discusses all things Starfield, and the hope of one day turning 18 and escaping her stepmother’s clutches. The twins, who are the same age, are just as bad at emotionally torturing Elle, always picking on her. Having set her up with one of the boys at the country club last year, Elle has sworn off any relationship. Working in a food truck painting like a pumpkin selling vegan fare, Elle is shocked that the remake of the new Starfield movie will feature Darien Freeman in the title role of Prince Carmindor. A teen heartthrob and star of the soap Seaside Cove, Darien is gorgeous but is nothing but a vapid star and Elle writes a devastating review of the announcement of the film cast on her blog.

Darien, meanwhile, is under the tight control of his manager father and is afraid he will not measure to the previous actor who occupied the role of the Prince. He has read Elle’s devastating review and knows it will be hard to convince the die-hard fans he is one of them. Informed by his handler that he will be participating on a panel at ExcelsiCon, Darien attempts to contact the organizers to cancel his appearance. He really hates conventions, especially after the major fight he had with Brian, whom he thought was his best friend but whom was in it only for the money. Looking on the con’s website, all he can find is a phone number for the founder.

When he texts it requesting to be removed from the panel, Elle is the one who receives the message. She inherited the phone when her father died. At first she doesn’t want to talk to the stranger, but soon she realizes they have a connection. They are both Starfield fans, and they both wish they were somewhere else. Since they are both virtual strangers, they open up in ways they never would have had they met. With the filming of the movie moving along and with the con getting closer every day, will Darien and Elle be able to connect and ignite their relationship before they discover they loathe each other’s public persona?

The Enemy

Holbrook, Sara. The Enemy. 2017. 256p. ISBN 978-1-62979-498-3. Available at FIC HOL on the library shelves.

In 1954 Detroit, the enemy is not as far as you think. With only nine years since the end of the Second World War, many survivors of the Nazi concentration camps have relocated to the United States, along with hundred of thousands of displaced persons and refugees. Nazis are still the favored villains for children, but Communists are also gaining ground. In the midst of the Red Scare, being different often means being the subject of intensescrutiny. Twelve-year-old Marjorie Campbell’s father, like most fathers, four in the War, and brought back a dislike of the Germans. Her mother went to college during the war, but thing more than a glorified housewife and is not expected to contribute to society aside from raising her children, Margie and six years old Carol Anne.

At school, Margie is aske dot share her desk in an overcrowded classroom with a new student from Canada, Inga. At first glance, it is clear that Inga is different. Her clothes are worn and shoddy, with a European flair. She wears two braids, when no one else does. She doesn’t speak English, and it soon becomes clear that she and her parents are Germans. Torn between loyalty to her friends and family, and her curiosity for the wider world, Margie has to thread a careful line, for adults and children alike are paranoids and are seeking to stamp the Red Menace wherever it can be found, and being friends with a Nazi is definitively not a reputation enhancer.

Can Margie, who discovers a subversive book titled  1984 at the local library, embrace her inner courage and become friends with Inga despite the obvious danger to her family and her reputation, or will she decide not to rock the boat by remaining safely involved with her group of friends?

An excellent book to understand the fear that grasped the United States in the 1950s, Margie’s story provides a powerful look at how being safe often means allowing evil to take place. Fans of Margie’s story should take a look at A Night Divided, another historical book where an oppressive society, in this case East Germany, attempts to control the thoughts of its citizens and how a teenage girl fights back.

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle

Avi. The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle. 1990. 215p. 387 mins. Available at FIC AVI on the library shelves and as an audiobook from Overdrive.

At age six, Charlotte Doyle and her family traveled to England when her father, a manager of a shipping company, was transferred to the British office. Seven years later, her father is promoted to the company’s board. The Doyles have to move back to Providence, Rhode Island. Charlotte’s mother, father and her two siblings departed early, but Charlotte remained behind at Barrington School for Better Girls, her exclusive girl’s school so she could finish the year. With an Atlantic crossing that could last anywhere from one to two months, her father thought it best to let Charlotte cross during the summer, so she would not lose any schooling time.

Accompanied by Mr. Grummage from school to the ship, Charlotte expects there will be two families aboard along with small children, so she should not lack in proper company. At the ship, however, Charlotte discovers that the other families will not be on board as planned. Mr. Grummage refuses to allow Charlotte to change her plans, so she boards the ship as the only female.

Aboard the Seahawk, Charlotte realizes quickly that the crew does not get along with the Captain. Her first night aboard she meets Zachariah, an old black sailor who warns her that Captain Jaggery is violent and murderous. He gives her a small dirk for protection. Hoping to get off the ship, Charlotte awakens the next morning to find that the Seahawk has already sailed. She meets Captain Jaggery, who appears gentlemanly and wise. He tells her to report to him anything strange happening aboard the ship, and he mentions that the crew is lazy and must be guided by an iron fist.

As the days progress, the tension builds up aboard the ship, with the Captain, the only one who has access to weapons, on one side, and the crew on the other. Charlotte faces a difficult choice. She can abide by the Captain’s request and support him, as her station in life and her education warrants, or she can side with the crew, as justice and right requires. Whichever she chooses, her decision will have deadly consequences.

For a lighter treatment of a girl joining a ship in the early 1800s, take a look at Jacky Faber’s adventures in Bloody Jack.

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

Brashares, Ann. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. 2001. 294p. ISBN 0-385-72933-2. Available at FIC BRA on the library shelves.

At nearly sixteen, four friends are about to spend their first summer apart. Carmen is heading to North Carolina to spend time with her father, Al. Lena and her younger sister are heading to Greece to be with grandparents they haven’t met before. Bridget is heading to Baja California to a soccer camp. Tibby, unlike the others, is staying here working a boring summer job at the local drug store. The four have known each other since birth, as their mothers were in the same nursing group together, and they’ve always celebrated the beginning of the summer by breaking into a gym for the night.

As they gather at Carmen’s house before the break-in, the girls are sad to be apart this summer, but are all, except Tibby, looking forward to new experiences. Carmen hopes to make Tibby feel better by offering her the jeans she had bought at the vintage thrift store when she had gone shopping with Lena. Dirty and worn, the jeans end up fitting Tibby perfectly. And Bridget. And Lena. When Carmen puts them on, everyone realize that the pants are magical. With four incredibly different body types, there’s no way these pants would fit each girl so well.

That night, in the gym, they agree that the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants will share their magical find. Each week, a different girl will have the pants. They create 10 rules that regulate pants use, and they agree that the pants will be shipped around the world so that each of them get to use them for two weeks.

As they depart the next morning for a summer full of adventures, each girl is looking forward to new experiences. The pants come to play a role in each of their lives, helping them grow as individuals and learn more about themselves.

How to Be Popular

Cabot, Meg. How to Be Popular. 2006. 288p. ISBN 978-0-06-088012-5. Available at FIC CAB on the library shelves.

Stephanie Landry has always wanted to be part of the popular crowd. But when she spilled a cherry flavored Super Big Gulp on popular girl Lauren Moffat’s white dress in fifth grade, she instantly became a social pariah. Everyone in Greene County, Indiana, is familiar with the expression “Way to pull a Steph Landry,” which is used to denote someone’s social death. For example, a boy throws a basketball that rebounds and hits the star quarterback in the face, causing a bloody nose. That boy just pulled a Steph Landry.

Now sixteen and a junior at Bloomville High School, Steph is keen on escaping her own legacy and rejoin the ranks of the socially acceptable teens. She plans on accomplishing this by following the advice she discovered in a book at her friend Jason’s grandmother, appropriately titled “How to Become Popular.” Speaking of Jason, Steph’s best friend has gotten hot over the last year, and Steph really enjoys spying on him (they are next door neighbors) through his shadeless window. Steph’s grandfather is about to marry Jason’s grandmother, so the two of them will become related by marriage.

Steph’s plan is devastatingly simple. She has a great idea to help the seniors fundraise. Senior Mark Finley, the star quarterback, is sure to appreciate her help. She then plans to undermine Lauren Moffat’s incessant and relentless attacks on her by endearing herself to the rest of the class. But her trip up the social ladder leaves Jason and her friend Becca puzzled at Steph’s behavior. Is it so bad to want to escape one’s legacy? What Steph did not count on, however, is that climbing the high school social ladder is hard, but staying at the top is even harder.

Fans of Jessica Darling’s adventures will appreciate Stephanie’s attempts at becoming popular.

Ten: A Soccer Story

Flint, Shamini. Ten: A Soccer Story. 2017. 176p. ISBN 978-0-544-85001-9. Available at FIC FLI on the library shelves.

The year is 1986, and the soccer World Cup is being played in Mexico. Eleven-year-old Maya considers herself to be the Brazilian team’s biggest fan, and she especially loves Zico, a dashing midfield and arguably one of the best players of the game. Maya’s enthusiasm for all things Brazil and Zico include watching the games even if they are late at night, and reliving the games in her head. Itching to play soccer, Maya is a typical girl. Except for the fact that she is Malaysian, has never touched a soccer ball in her life, and doesn’t know of any girls’ teams in the area.

When she gets her first soccer ball, she’s really excited. She cannot wait to be the best soccer player ever. But playing soccer is hard, especially if there is no one to teach you how to play. Her English father and her Indian mother are experiencing a rocky patch in their marriage, and life at home is hard with her older brother Rajiv. Slowly gaining skills, Maya manages to attract more girls to her group during recess at her private school. As her parents’ marriage disintegrate, soccer is the one thing that keeps her centered. When a girls’ soccer tournament is announced in town, Maya is hopeful that her small group will be able to play. The only question is, are they ready or, like Brazil’s Zico in 1986, will they fail spectacularly?

A great sports novel, Ten realistically portrays the struggles of a girl trying to do something different, and provides a good exposure to a culture most Americans are not familiar with. Fans of girls overcoming the odds in the sports world will appreciate this book. Readers who enjoy this book should look to DJ’s basketball tribulations in Dairy Queen and  Lucy's adventures in Playing with the Boys.

If This Is Home

Scarrow, Kristine. If This Is Home. 2017. 184p. ISBN 978-1459736504. Available as an eBook from Overdrive.

Jayce’s single mother struggles to feed and house her two daughters, working two jobs and still barely getting by. Jayce’s father is a musician in a band on a perpetual tour. In the past, he would visit them infrequently, but never supported them financially. They have not heard any news or visits from him in four years, ever since Joelle’s birth. Now 16, Jayce comes home to find her mother being taken away in an ambulance. She had been sick for months, and the diagnostic is stage 4 cancer. Jayce had already been caring for Joelle while keeping up with her studies. Thankfully Kurt is there to help. Going through a similar process with his own grandmother, Kurt understands what she’s living through. Now it’s up to her to find her father so he will accept responsibility for them before her mother dies.

Dealing with the too-real situation of a teenager about to lose her only parent, Scarrow deftly illustrates the rawness of Jayce’s feelings and foreboding as her life careens towards disaster. Jayce and Kurt’s relationship is more support group than romance though there is a hint that something could eventually blossom. Main and supporting characters are well-defined and feature realistic emotions. The structure of the story ensures that this novel is a page turner. Both the father and the grandmother are unsympathetic in the decisions they made, but are able to redeem themselves. The ending is perfect for the book, leaving everything uncertain but with hope on the horizon. Readers of all stripes, including reluctant readers, will appreciate this story of resilience and healing in the face of a tragedy.

Fish Girl

Wiesner, David and Donna Jo Napoli. Fish Girl. 2017. 186p. ISBN 9780544815124. Available as an eBook from Overdrive.

Fish Girl has gills and a tail instead of legs. Fish Girl can’t talk, but can breathe air. Fish Girl lives in an aquarium by the sea on the boardwalk. Though she has an underwater room with all the furnitures of a regular teenage girl, she can’t leave the building. Working with Neptune, the God of the Sea, her role is to swim around and offer tantalizing hints that she exists to the paying customers, without ever being seen. At the end of each day, she collects the coins tourists have dropped in the water and brings them to Neptune, who tells her a story from the time when mermaids lived in the sea and Neptune himself was powerful.

A chance encounter with a girl the same age as Fish Girl changes all of that. Fish Girl is not supposed to be seen, but she was, and the girl is convinced she saw a mermaid. When she returns the next day, the girls begin playing games, and even make contact on the third floor. Neptune’s return interrupts the moment, but the girl covers for Fish Girl and Neptune is none the wiser. Fish Girl begins to notice details that had escaped her. Neptune is not the powerful God he claims to be, but rather a fisherman who found her in the ocean and brought her back here. He tricks the tourists through machinery.

Fish Girl longs for freedom, but doesn’t know how to leave. Livia, her friend, continues to visit, and every time opens up a little more a window to the world Fish Girl did not know existed. Named Mira by Livia, she exists the aquarium one night and discovers to her surprise that her tail transforms into legs. Soon, she is exploring the entire house and even the boardwalk beyond. But Neptune is not as dupe as he appears, and he closely monitors Fish Girl. When he catches Livia and Mira together, Neptune knows that Livia will tell the authorities, and he schemes to hide Mira forever. Mira has other plans, however, and with the help of her trusted friend Octopus, she will attempt to find her voice before the storming sea reclaims the aquarium.

Beautifully illustrated by three time Caldecott illustrator David Wiesner, Donna Jo Napoli’s story is based in the folklore of the mermaid and demonstrates that sheer will can overcome most obstacles, but that a friend can help take the first step.

The Unlikely Hero of Room 13 B

Toten, Teresa. The Unlikely Hero of Room 13 B. 2013. 272p. ISBN 9780385678346. Available as an audiobook from Overdrive.

Adam Ross has problems. Lots of them. So many of them, in fact, that he meets with a support group once a week. The other kids in the group, like him, are dealing with obsessive-compulsive disorder, and for each one it manifests in different ways. For Adam, it’s crossing thresholds, having to count series of odd numbers, and performing actions in the same way every time. Adam’s home life is also hard. His mother and father divorced years ago, and his mother also suffers from mental health issues but Adam’s not sure how to help her. His father remarried, and he and his new wife have a son, Wendel but also known as Sweetie, who has panic attacks and needs his big brother to help him. Adam’s plate is full, and just making it through one day is tough enough.

That’s when Robyn joins his group. He is as drawn to her as a moth is to a flame, and it becomes his goal in life to protect her. His OCD can’t let him enjoy this growing relationship, however, and he is completely focused on what it would feel like to kiss her. Not that a girl like that could ever fall in love with a guy like him. He can’t even imagine what a normal relationship would feel like. The group, under the leadership of their therapist, adopts a superhero persona, and suddenly Adam becomes Batman, while Robyn is, well, Robin. As Adam learns to navigate a complicated relationship along with the daily challenges that being severely OCD present, he must also deal with the threatening letters his mother is receiving and the hoarding that’s turning their house into a dump. Can Robyn truly be the anchor that helps him get better? Can Batman really save Robyn? More importantly, can Batman save himself?