At first glance, this is the story of two girls who form an unlikely alliance and friendship. But dig deeper, and you'll find ties like, "strands of spider silk: practically invisible, maybe, but strong as steel" which are woven throughout this fiction novel. Stella and Angel barely talk to each other in the small house they share with Stella's great-aunt Louise, the caretaker for a small group of rental cottages on Cape Cod. When Louise dies suddenly the girls are forced to work together in order to survive. The girls don't tell the police and have to take care of themselves and cover up for their missing guardian. This book fills you with emotions and is very interesting. Stella and Angel's backgrounds are realistic yet their circumstances are unlikely. What I loved about this book was Stella's personality. She loves order and routine and uses her clippings of tips and advice from Heloise to help get through the day. She acts and behaves much older than she should and by the end of the book is finally given a chance to live like a child again.This is a well written chapter book that elementary school aged girls will love. It doesn't have too much difficult vocabulary but is interesting enough for fifth graders. It would be great for struggling readers. The cover art was fun and relatable to the content of the book, but didn't necessarily grab my attention to read the book like the title did for me. I had a hard time deciding on which genre this one goes in. crime? adventure? I was surprised that this one is meant for a younger audience of gr 3-5. I found the death and burial of the foster parent/ great aunt to be unrealistic. I seriously doubt that two preteen girls could have dealt with the bodily process of death and getting a large overweight old person buried deep enough to ward off animals and the stench of death and a rotting corpse. Maybe youth will make them less cynical and detail oriented than an older reader. I also did not like the way Stella spent too much time creating sideline stories of how she wished things would be. But I did like the way the girls worked hard on the vacation cottages and greeted their guests and cleaned up after them. And of course there was a happy ending with Stella and Angela. There were things to like but ..... I always circle back to the death and how the girls dealt with it. This one will be hard to promote.
Great book for Upper Elementary, probably of interest to mostly girls.
—pyxiebites
It says the audience is for 8-12 years old. I'd change it to 10-15.
—domswasd
realistic fiction - it could happen but it probably won't
—Jordan
Great girl book--lots of character development.
—ghislain
Wonderful summer story
—fearless_tigercub
