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Juvenile Fiction | Page 91 | LitPick Book Reviews
Juvenile Fiction
Claire and the Bakery Thief
Claire and the Bakery Thief
Janice Poon, Janice Poon
Claire has moved to the country, where her parents have opened an organic bakery. Although Claire says she'd rather move to Mars, she soon falls in love with her pretty bedroom and their big creaky house. Claire hardly thinks about the city any more after she and her dog, Bongo, discover the natural wonders in the surrounding woods. And Claire has made a "best friend forever" -- the brave and headstrong Jet. To make things just about perfect, the bakery is a success ? so why are her parents always arguing? ("Why do they want a bakery when all they do is argue about it? They should open a bickery instead," writes Claire in her diary.) When Mom suddenly leaves with the Artificial Flavoring Salesman, Claire can't believe it -- why would she run off with that creepy guy? "Operation: Rescue Mom" takes Claire back to the big city with Jet and Bongo. The excitement bubbles over when the friends stumble into a quick-rising plan for global domination through artificial baking. Claire and the Bakery Thief is an irresistible treat for middle readers. And don't miss the recipes in the back!

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Mixed Bags (Carter House Girls, Book 1)
Mixed Bags
Melody Carlson
When her mom died, DJ had to move in with her grandmother, internationally famous ’60s fashion model Katherine Carter. Now Mrs. Carter’s opened a boarding home for young ladies, and DJ―who would rather wear her basketball team uniform than haute couture―is just sure they’ll all be unbearable fashion snobs. One by one, the girls arrive and begin to figure out how to fit into this new family, getting to know each other and forming friendships. Sure, there’s an aspiring diva or two, but before long, the Carter House girls are dating, fighting, laughing, shopping, sharing clothes, purses, shoes … and their deepest secrets. DJ may not turn into the perfect little lady her grandmother has in mind, but one thing’s for certain―with all these new “sisters,” her life will never be the same!

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Secrets for Sale (Faithgirlz! / Boarding School Mysteries)
Secrets for Sale
Bruce Emmett, Kristi Holl
When Jeri McKane is blamed by her best friend Rosa for using a secret against her, Jeri's world is turned upside down. Unless the real blackmailer is found, Rosa could be expelled from Landmark School and her starring role in Cinderella given to a snobbish seventh grader. Worse still, Jeri could lose her best friend's trust just when things with her own absentee father are heating up. Why does everything have to be so complicated---and where is God when you need him? Middle schoolers will identify with Jeri and her friends as they solve this mystery and learn valuable lessons about truth-telling, faith, hope, and love.

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The Summer of Cotton Candy (A Sweet Seasons Novel)
The Summer of Cotton Candy
Debbie Viguié
Most people think The Zone is an amusement park, but Candy Thompson knows it’s really a slave labor camp. What else would you call a summer job that requires a sixteen-year-old girl to set aside her whole social life for the privilege of standing out in the hot sun selling cotton candy? Still, there are perks―particularly the mysterious hunk in the Lone Ranger costume. Behind that mask are the most amazing eyes Candy has ever seen. Who is that masked man? But someone else is just as interested. And romantic competition isn’t the only problem. Besides being hard work, The Zone is eating up major time. How is Candy supposed to stay involved in church? Worse yet, will she lose her best friend, Tamara, who resents how Candy’s job limits their time together? This is NOT the summer Candy hoped for! But as she is about to discover, the summer of cotton candy will be the greatest summer of her life.

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Fading Tracks (Faithgirlz! / Boarding School Mysteries)
Fading Tracks
Bruce Emmett, Kristi Holl
Lonely and a long way from her Iowa home, twelve-year-old Jeri McKane reacts to boarding school the way most middle schoolers would. Even with close friends, she wonders whether her scholarship to prestigious Landmark School was worth it. She's tempted to give up when her Mom can't make parents' weekend, and the school bus carrying her roommate, Rosa, disappears. But this reporter for the sixth-grade newspaper has an eye like Nancy Drew and more faith and courage than she realizes. Jeri solves the mystery---and makes landmark decisions to trust God and his Word through circumstances and feelings that don't make sense.

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Attack of the Spider Bots: Episode II (The Star-Fighters of Murphy Street)
Attack of the Spider Bots
Robert West
Know Your Star-FightersBeamer: California transplant to a weird Midwestern town. Feels like he’s living on another planet. Scilla: the gangly tomboy next door. Ghoulie: the class nerd. Add one spaceship-shaped tree house capable of taking them most anywhere in the universe. Hop in and blast off for fantastic outer space adventures in Star-Fighters of Murphy Street―the quirky, funny, fast-paced new trilogy by Robert West.Taking a shortcut home from school, the Star-Fighters are chased by a horrible one-eyed creature into a cavern that houses an entire miniature world. Everything is animated―cars, trucks, moon, clouds, stars―but no one is at the controls. Who would make such a thing and then abandon it?The Star-Fighters’ search leads them on a wild adventure to a palatial mansion within a wintry jungle that hides a terrible secret―a secret that defines the limits of trusting God.

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Fran, The Second Time Around
Fran, The Second Time Around
Amy L. Bernstein
A fresh start. A clean slate. That’s what Mom said as I headed out the door to catch the annoyingly bright and infantile school bus. No one knows you, or anything about you, she said. You can be who you are—whoever you want to be. Now isn’t that just great. I have the privilege of beginning ninth grade, the start of my high school career—or lack of career, more likely—as a complete zero, a nobody. No history, no personality, no best friend. Tracy is out of the picture after, let’s see, eleven years of tried-and-true, best-buds-til-we-die friendship…. Yeah, well, things change in ways you can’t imagine.

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How I Found the Perfect Dress (A Morgan Rawlinson Novel)
How I Found the Perfect Dress
Maryrose Wood
Maryrose Wood follows up her hilarious hit Why I Let My Hair Grow Out with another irreverent, teen angst-filled, girl-power romp.On a bike tour of Ireland last summer, Morgan Rawlinson fell for Colin, the hunky guide, and entered a portal that turned her into the goddess Morganne. Now she?s back to her painfully normal life and her relationship with Colin has fizzled to the occasional e-mail?until he writes saying he?s coming to Connecticut?just in time for the prom. But when he arrives, he?s exhausted. It seems that when Morgan crossed the portal as Morganne, a spell was cast on Colin. In his dreams he?s being forced to dance ?til dawn with the faeries, who want to boogie with him for eternity. Somehow she has to break the spell on her date, help plan the prom, and find the perfect dress. Oh, what a night?

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Oh. My. Gods.
Oh. My. Gods.
Tera Lynn Childs
A modern girl's comedic odyssey in a school filled with the descendants of Greek gods. When Phoebe's mom returns from Greece with a new husband and moves them to an island in the Aegean, Phoebe's plans for her senior year and track season are ancient history. Now she must attend the uberexclusive academy, where admission depends on pedigree, namely, ancestry from Zeus, Hera, and other Greek gods. That'’s right, they'’re real, not myth, and their teen descendants are like the classical heroes--—supersmart and superbeautiful with a few superpowers. And now they'’re on her track team! Armed only with her Nikes and the will to win, Phoebe races to find her place among the gods.

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Sweet Valley High # 2: Secrets
Sweet Valley High 2 Secrets
Francine Pascal
WELCOME TO SWEET Valley High—a world of good girls with big secrets, bad girls with no remorse, rich boys in stunning tuxedos, and shimmering California sunsets.Jessica Wakefield only wants two things: to be chosen homecoming queen, and to dance in the spotlight with Bruce Patman. But there’s one girl standing in her way—Enid Rollins, her twin sister Elizabeth’s best friend.When Jessica discovers Enid’s deepest, darkest secret, she has a choice to make: be nice and keep quiet, or reveal it to the entire school and clinch the crown for herself.The queen will be breathtaking. But the quest for royalty is never pretty.

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