Allison Pollet
1 rebel, 2 best friends, and a horror movie about Oliver Twist.
Summary: Cass Levin (not Levine) is entering 8th grade with her friends Penelope and Tillie. There's just one teensy problem: Both of them are in every single class together, and neither one of them is in any classes with her. Obviously, this makes Cass quite a bit upset, even though she doesn't show it in front of them, because she doesn't want them to feel sorry for her (more on that later).
She gets more and more unhappy as the day goes on, and goes to bed pretty miserable. But for some reason, on the first day of school, she wakes up buzzing with energy and opportunities. And when her school bus goes over a pothole, causing a pair of old heart shaped glasses missing a frame to go flying out of her pocket, she takes a chance and puts them on.
They aren't magical. They don't give her superpowers. But she likes them because they take the attention away from her, and focuses it on the glasses.
Now, here's a little fact about Cass: She's an orphan. No, she's not one of those tiny kids in an orphanage singing sad songs and clinging to a locket (she's 5'8, not even tiny!). Her parents died when she was 8, and though it doesn't mention this much, there are several flashbacks throughout the book. One of the things she hates is people feeling sorry for her because of this tragedy.
It doesn't help that they're reading a bunch of books about orphans in her english class. Nor does it help that there's a boy named Rod Punkin who sits behind her, who tends to blurt things out at random. He has obvioous behavior problems, but, according to Rod at least, so does she.
She slowly becomes friends with Rod, hanging out with him at an opening at some clinic her Aunt started, and talking to him on the phone about a project their group is doing for English, and actually talking about how her parents died with him.
It's hard to describe their friendship, mostly because it doesn't go on very long. Rod randomly doesn't show up at school one day, and rumors go around saying he was expelled. Cass is shocked and unhappy, having lost yet another person in her life.
The inside flap acts like this is the most important part of the book, but it really doesn't happen till the end-ish part of the book, and is quickly resolved. That's probably a longer summary than the book requires, so I'll stop there.
My opinion: At first, the book kind of bored me, and the fact that it took place in the 80's didn't help much. But the story picked up, and I found myself enjoying it. I grew attached to Cass, and was sad when the book ended. That was a negative thing about the book. They say a book ending should leave you wanting more, but I feel like a book should make you feel like it ended at just the right time, in just the right way. This book didn't give me that feeling.
Other than that, the book was good, though it randomly turned sad towards the end. Apparently there's a book that comes before it about her friend Penelope, called "Nobody Was Here." I haven't read it, but maybe you should read it first.
Happy reading!
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