Citified Melissa breezes into town and places a wedge between country girls and best friends Violet and Lottie. Lottie is duly impressed with Melissa while Violet can’t stand her. More interesting to me is the tug of adolescence on Lottie, with Melissa’s encouragement, while Violet poignantly yearns to hold onto to childhood as long as possible. Add to the mix a cute boy named Eddie, harrowing lightning strikes, and a threatening alligator for a satisfying middle grade novel. This children's novel is the 2012 winner of the California Young Reader Medal. For me this book didn't live up to its expectations. Violet is a young girl who lives in a small town. She has a best friend named Lottie and a boy who is a friend named Eddie. Everything is just fine until Melissa moves into town from the big city. Then Violet has to worry about losing her friendship. Violet is a bit of a brat in this story. But so is newcomer, Melissa. This is a coming of age story for those children who are just going through many changes and learning to adjust to them all. The story would be a good realistic fiction for some young girls who feel like they need to relate to someone else when dealing with some of these issues. However, I felt that Judy Blume did a much better job at creating characters that we can love and relate to at this age range. For me the novel was likeable but not great.
Maybe historical? A good story which seemed pretty realistic as far as how the characters acted.
—meganromella
I absolutely love Violet Raine's spunky attitude! This is one of my fave books.
—Jess
A gret read for 6th graders or lower level reading 7th graders.
—Carl
Such a good book...read it three times
—Issy
pretty good, not the best
—Annie
