by Tricia Springstubb
ages: 10+
First sentence: “Fox Street was a dead end.”
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Mo Wren loves her street. She’s lived there her whole life, and it’s her whole world. She has everything she needs: people to cut hair, tutor, watch after her and her little sister Dottie, her best friend comes to visit there every summer, and even the boy down the street is beginning to look interesting. Except things are starting to change. And Mo doesn’t like that.

First bad news is that her best friend, Mercedes, says that it might be her last summer on Fox Street since her mother’s marriage to a man who’s “comfortable” (ie, not rich, but much better off than they used to be) is changing things. They might also take Mercedes’ grandmother, Da, to come live with them, too. And Mo’s dad, who hates his job as a city water and sewer employee and has just been scraping by in the years since her mom’s sudden death, is thinking about selling out to a developer to go after his dream of owning a sports bar/restaurant. Her little sister, Dottie, is a wild child without discipline, taken to wandering the neighborhood adding to her bottle collection; what else can you expect from a girl without a mother?

Somehow, though this quiet (though sometimes tumultuous), yet heartfelt story, Mo figures out that not all change is bad, that she is strong enough to make the changes necessary. And that it will probably all work out for the best. A very hopeful, charming little book.

(Just for the record: because this is a Cybils nominee, I’ve been asked to make sure y’all know this is my opinion only, and not that of the panel.)