SAMANTHA HANSEN HAS ROCKS IN HER HEAD

Girl readers who are regretfully leaving the Amber Brown series or are about to graduate from the school of Junie B. Jones might be happy to meet Sam Hansen, fourth grader and rock enthusiast. Sam shares many qualities with Junie B.—the obligatory spunk, a chattily ingenuous voice—but her passion for science distinguishes her from other franchise heroines. Supporting characters are typical: an odd, greeting-card–writing widowed mother, a clichéd, text-messaging older sister and a best friend who lives next door. This rather plotless first effort gains some traction well past the middle, when the all-female family vacations at that geologist’s paradise, the Grand Canyon. Sam is a likable character, but the narrative is not particularly nuanced or humorous; moreover, her anger-management issue is overdone and eventually grows tiresome. But for those young readers who are not quite ready for Ramona and long for more Junie B., this might be the prescription for transition. (Fiction. 8-10)