A FORTUNE BRANCHES OUT
by Margaret Mahy & illustrated by Marian Young
Book 3 of The Cousins Quartet features Tessa, last seen (in A Foretaste Name, 1993) hoping cousin Lorelei's banker dad will stay married to her aunt so that Tessa can still have his financial counsel. Now Tessa's reading a self-help book, Fillmore's Succeed and Grow Rich; when the Fortune cousins try to raise money for a charitable, telethon (contributors will appear on New Zealand TV), Tessa does her best to follow Fillmore's advice. This can be comically inadequate ("Nothing in his book...could help a disappointed financial director forced to climb a tree to hide her tears"), or apt in a way that was never intended. After a contretemps with a bully, the young Fortunes are forced to close their white elephant stand; but Tessa's climb does turn-out to be up the "ladder of success." Deciding to stay in the tree all night and collect donations (calculated by the hour) from passersby, she attracts TV coverage and comes close to making her $100 goal. It's a nice touch that two of the fathers camp under the tree to be sure she's safe; and that Tessa gains insight into the bully's problems and learns to accept philosophically the mix of good luck and bad that puts her contribution over the top. A strong third in a lively and likable series. (Fiction. 8-11)