BRAVO, GRACE!
by Mary Hoffman
The spirited Grace is back with her gang and quite a few changes, in her fourth outing, tackling a host of issues including divorce, moving, her mother’s wedding, a new baby, a friend’s eating disorder, jealousy and bullying. Grace’s best friend, Aimee, has moved away, and newcomer Crishell has not quite settled in, feeling like an outsider at times while Grace misses the special friendship she enjoyed with Aimee. The young ruffian, Russell, is still intimidating others with his verbal taunts and Grace is worried over her loyalty to her own papa in Gambia, having confused feelings about a new baby with stepfather Vince. As in the previous installments, Hoffman folds the larger problems within a loosely written plot centered around school and home life in a multicultural community. More playwriting of traditional fairytales together with some heart-to-heart talks with Nana seem to solve, if not air out Grace’s concerns. Hoffman manages to address the serious without a heavy-handed approach to the ups-and-downs of a typical child’s daily life. A nice addition to the easily read British series. (Fiction. 8-10)