TWELVE

Another year, another set of ’tween concerns about friends and foes, anatomical changes, the opposite sex and mother/sister relationships all recounted by 12-year-old Winnie of the previous Eleven (2004). Sixth grade ends with graduation and a camp-away experience with former best friend Amanda. Seventh grade begins in a new school with anxiety and possibilities. Winnie, who now enjoys a comfortable exclusive friendship with Dinah, learns to juggle the mix of mean-spirited and self-centered behaviors of former and new friends, Amanda and Cinnamon. In the same month-by-month format, Myracle tackles the fickleness of 12-year-old girls through a series of scenarios with a trace of didacticism, yet manages to incorporate some sardonic humor in two embarrassing first-time bra shopping and menstruation developments. Light, quick reading with an authentic perspective. (Fiction. 8-11)