Life isn’t always a bowl full of red jelly beans.  Even Poppy Johnson, straight-A extraordinaire, main character in Jolene Stockman’s new novel, The Jelly Bean Crisis, knows that.  Poppy has lived by her infamous Jelly Bean Theory for years.  Eat the worst jelly beans first, in order to get the best ones later. The same applies to Poppy’s life.  Study for SATS.  Win the Denton Award.  Go to Columbia.  Wall Street.  The worst comes first.  Then, on to the finest jelly beans in life.  Money.  Influence.  Changing the world.  Happiness.  Poppy believes she can accomplish all this and more until her resolve and focus start to crumble.    How can she be happy with a job she feels obligated to do?   What if she was meant for something else than working on Wall Street?  How can she find out what she really wants?  When she refuses the coveted Denton Award, her life turns to shambles.  Her family is in uproar.  Her friends start to drift away.  Her teachers turn their backs on her.  Poppy can’t seem to find a way out until Mrs. Young, her school’s guidance counselor, suggests a gap month, an entire four weeks to learn different things and try to discover her dream occupation.  Poppy is overjoyed, and, as soon as her parent’s agree to it, sets out to find where she was meant to be.  As she takes on this new world, will Poppy truly find what she has been waiting for, or will her gap month turn out to be four weeks of mayhem?