THE REINVENTION OF BESSICA LEFTER

Bessica Lefter looked forward to middle school until a rash decision to get matching pixie haircuts led to her having to negotiate the new school entirely on her own, without her longtime best friend Sylvie. Well-meaning adults and former students give her conflicting advice. On her own she finds it hard to avoid the psycho-bullies and make new friends. Eating cookies from the vending machine in “loner town” had not been her plan. On top of that, her grandmother and best ally has gone off on a trip in her new friend Willy’s motor home. One subplot revolves around Bessica’s use of an online-dating service to find her grandmother a more suitable friend. Another involves Bessica’s efforts to join the cheerleading squad, although she doesn’t like to be upside down. The first-person narration reveals the inconsistencies of preteendom, the magnified problems and rapid emotional swings. Both family and school are believable, but, appropriately, this is all about Bessica, a character whose newfound bear persona schoolmates and readers alike can applaud. (Fiction. 9-13)