Rules for Secret Keeping

January 1, 2011

Gr 6-8-Samantha Carmichael is being featured in You Girl magazine as one of the tween finalists for Entrepreneur of the Year for her secret-passing business. Then she starts Somerville Middle School where the rules seem to have changed overnight. She must contend with technology and competition in order to keep her business alive and her personal life secure. In the meantime, she must learn to trust her friends and family lest they find out her secret. Barnholdt does a good job keeping readers interested in the life of a middle school girl and the drama that surrounds it. She incorporates modern technology, fashion, popularity, and boy/girl concerns into her narrative, which will be a hit with the audience. The plot and subplots drive the story forward. Barnholdt does a good job letting tweens know that they too can be entrepreneurs.-Sherry Rampey, Gaston Branch Library, SC

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