AS IF BEING 12¾ ISN’T BAD ENOUGH, MY MOTHER IS RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT!

Gephart writes humorously about a preteen’s concerns regarding her mom, governor of Florida. Vanessa Rothrock is always tripping, getting tongue-tied and generally being a regular preteen. She suffers many realistic humiliations around her crush while all but ignoring classmate Reginald, with whom she has lots in common. Underpinning her humor is sadness that she is too often relegated to the backburner by her mother’s many responsibilities. When Mom announces her run for the presidency, Vanessa knows things will only get worse. Her mother is not really neglectful and they discuss their feelings, but Vanessa’s fear that something bad will happen to her mom (as it did to her late dad) overwhelms her. While her mother’s handlers take somewhat seriously the increasingly threatening notes Vanessa gets at school from an unknown source, Vanessa has other worries—like why hasn’t the Boob Fairy made an appearance at her house already? Eventually, a bad guy does emerge and it’s up to Vanessa to rescue her mom. Had the author left out the mystery element, she would have had a satisfyingly funny story of teen/parental communication and the self-consciousness felt by so many preteens. (Fiction. 8-12)