"Before last summer Maureen and I were best friends....At least I think we were. I don't know what happened exactly. As some people who get hit by trucks sometimes say,'I didn't see anything coming.'"...
"Before last summer Maureen and I were best friends....At least I think we were. I don't know what happened exactly. As some people who get hit by trucks sometimes say,'I didn't see anything coming.'"...
Due to publisher restrictions, your digital library cannot purchase additional copies of this title. We apologize if there is a long holds list. You may want to see if other editions of this title are available from your digital library instead.
Due to publisher restrictions, your digital library cannot purchase additional copies of this title. We apologize if there is a long holds list. You may want to see if other editions of this title are available from your digital library instead.
Description-
"Before last summer Maureen and I were best friends....At least I think we were. I don't know what happened exactly. As some people who get hit by trucks sometimes say,'I didn't see anything coming.'"
When her best friend since the third grade starts acting as though Debbie doesn't exist, Debbie finds out the hard way that life can be a lonesome place. But in the end the heroine of this wryly funny coming-of-age story—a girl who lives in a house covered with stuff that is supposed to look like bricks but is just a fake brick pattern—discovers that even the hourly tragedies of junior high school can have silver linings, just as a house covered with Insul-Brick can protect a real home. This first novel shines—fun, engrossing, bittersweet, and wonderfully unpredictable.
About the Author-
Lynne Rae Perkins was awarded the Newbery Medal for Criss Cross. She is the author of four other novels—All Alone in the Universe, As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth, Nuts to You, and Secret Sisters of the Salty Sea. Lynne Rae Perkins has also written and illustrated several acclaimed picture books, including Frank and Lucky Get Schooled; The Broken Cat; Snow Music: Pictures from Our Vacation; and The Cardboard Piano. The author lives with her family in northern Michigan. www.lynnerae.com
Reviews-
October 4, 1999 Perkins's (Home Lovely) first novel is a lively coming-of-age story filled with touching moments. The penciled illustrations, scribbled in between the narrative, resemble classic doodles of the junior high English notebook variety, and give 13-year-old narrator Debbie immediate credibility. The book chronicles eight months from the time when Debbie's best friend since third grade, Maureen, starts spending all her time with another classmate, Glenna. Debbie is devastated by the loss ("I felt off-balance, as if someone kept borrowing my right foot for a few minutes"). But as she gets to know a neglected neighbor girl, she realizes how many people love her: her parents, teachers and eventually, a few new friends. And she learns that as a person who is cared for, she must watch out for others who are not so fortunate. While there's not a lot of plot here, it's Debbie's fresh voice, perceptive observations and occasionally mean-spirited asides that will win readers over. Recalling Glenna's hold on Maureen, for instance, Debbie says, "I guess I hoped that she would evaporate.... But she seems to have congealed, like cold gravy and then cement." Readers will be caught up in Debbie's thoughts from the first page and cheer her hard-won breakthroughs. Ages 10-up.
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HarperCollins
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