by Lauren Tarshis
ages: 8-12
First sentence: “Emma-Jean Lazarus knew very well that a few of the seventh-grade girls at William Gladstone Middle School were criers.”
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Quirky.

Really. That’s the best way to describe both Emma-Jean Lazarus and this book.

See, Emma-Jean is a seventh-grade Spock. She’s highly logical, rational and prefers to just observe her classmates rather than actually participate in the drama. That is, until one day she stumbles upon Colleen crying in the bathroom. Colleen has a problem: the popular, yet mean Laura is trying to undercut Colleen’s friendship with Kaitlin. Emma-Jean realizes that she can fix it, and so… she does. Which sets off a chain of events, including Emma-Jean getting ambitious enough to (try and) fix other problems, that eventually lead to Emma-Jean interacting (at least a little bit) more with her peers.

It’s not much of a plot, and it does fall prey to the typical middle school stereotypes (why do all the popular girls have to be mean?). Yet, I think, because of who Emma-Jean is, and the way she is, the book works. It’s sweet and funny and rings true to middle school. I’m not sure if kids would like it (I should try it out on C and see what she thinks) — it is quirky, after all — but as an adult, I was completely charmed by Emma-Jean and her story.