FIONA'S PRIVATE PAGES

If readers haven't yet met the main character, they'll clamor for Cruise's first novel about her after reading this engaging book, written in journal-entry style. The first book (The Top-Secret Journal of Fiona Claire Jardin\i>, 1998) told of Fiona's coming to grips with her parents' divorce. In the new one, 11-year-old Fiona navigates the just-as-tricky waters of friendship. Over the course of a full year, those waters are sometimes rough, sometimes smooth, but always interesting, as Fiona wonders—often hilariously—about what makes a friend, how to be one, how to keep one, when not to keep one, and whether a “B-O-Y” can make the grade. She's still dealing with her parents’ divorce, with their respective new relationships, and with younger brother Sam, but the thrust of the novel is the journey that bright, personable, capable, and precocious Fiona makes toward self-discovery. Readers will happily travel right along with her and are bound to pick up a pointer or two about their own friendships, including when it's okay to say no and still remain friends and how to assist a pal in need, as when Fiona is instrumental in getting much-needed help for an anorexic friend. This is a delightful, funny, sometimes poignant, on-target read. It's no wonder that Fiona's friends like her. So will kids. (Fiction. 8-12)