children's middlegrade fiction/school stories. This story about fitting in and standing up to fears has a more diverse cast than usual (a Muslim girl, a formerly-fat Hispanic, an agoraphobic mom; the main character is red-haired). For some reason the girl is obsessed with visiting France, which makes as much sense as anything kids get obsessed with, but it feels a little trite. I also didn't care for the dad-in-hospital-after-falling-out-of-tree-concussion subplot, having known way too many kids who have lost parents to various illnesses, but that could just be me. ( )

This is a book read in one sitting! Mysti enters seventh grade without her previous best friend Anibal Gomez. Originally overweight and the brunt of nastiness from school mates, Anibal decides to lose weight and become a "hipster." To do so, he believes he needs to drop his one and only friend Mysti, so that he can be part of the in crowd.

Now, all is fair in making fun of Mysti. Cruelty is now his go to thing to do. Making fun of and sharing her personal secrets deems him as better than he previously was. It hurts Mysti BIG time.

Now, Mysti has no friends and has no idea where to sit at the lunch table. Added to the pain of rejection, her father falls from a tree resulting in serious repercussions. Previously, her dad held the family together and took care of the needs of Mysti's agoraphobic mother who refuses to leave the house.

As the food supply dwindles and Mysti's father's stay at the hospital is much longer than anticipated, Mysti must take charge of how to get food. Prompted by listening to the sounds of her dog's empty stomach, she learns to walk to the grocery store for dog food and other needed items.

When she walked in a rain storm, wearing a bright orange coat, Anibal Gomez notices Mysti's soaking by a passing car. This, he deems is worthy of a poster distributed to his new friends enabling him to laugh and make supreme fun of Mysti.

Through it all, Mysti finds another friend, gains courage to enter a talent show and finds transportation to visit her father in the hospital.

This book is a treasure and highlights why I enjoy YA books.

Four and 1/2 stars. Highly recommended. ( )

Middle school is such a hard part of life. ( )

This is a pretty interesting book, although this book has many characters and is a little confusing. I had to read it a couple of times to get it. Mysti (the main character of the book) is a red-haired girl who is a little different from other people and wishes she were a character in a book (what a coincidence). ( )

This book is full of interesting characters who are trying to survive being different in 7th grade. The main character is struggling with family problems and a best friend who has turned into a bully. I loved the voice- phrases like "he is a run on sentence with a mouth" made me laugh. ( )