The Battle of Darcy Lane

February 24, 2014
Altebrando (The Best Night of Your Life) makes a confident detour into middle-grade with this pensive summer-of-change story. Her 12-year-old old heroine, Julia, isn’t quite so confident: a new girl, Alyssa, has moved onto Darcy Lane, and her arrival drives an immediate wedge between Julia and best friend Taylor. Sniping comments are traded, feelings are hurt, pranks are deployed, and crushes on boys are wielded as weapons, all building to a faceoff between Julia and Alyssa in a competitive ball-bouncing game called Russia (playing instructions are included). Altebrando brings rich, realistic depth to all of her characters, including Julia’s very-in-love parents—their interactions with Julia are easily as important to the story as Julia’s strained friendships. The author provides just enough glimpses into Taylor and Alyssa’s home lives to generate a bit of empathy for them (even when they’re being truly cruel to Julia), without letting them off the hook—and Julia isn’t blameless either. It’s a smart, sensitive portrait of an age when change is in the air, for better or worse. Ages 8–12. Agent: David Dunton, Harvey Klinger.

March 1, 2014
As soon as new neighbor Alyssa shows up, Taylor is mesmerized, leaving best friend Julia feeling threatened. Immediately after 12-year-old Julia has bemoaned the boredom of hanging around her swimming pool with Taylor all summer, Alyssa enters the scene. Alyssa makes an unwelcome comment about Julia's unicorn-themed T-shirt, so Julia makes fun of Russia, the ball game Alyssa has begun to teach Taylor. Thus begins an escalating conflict, fueled mostly by Alyssa's cruelty and Taylor's complicity, which peaks with Alyssa's challenge to Julia to a one-on-one Russia tournament. Julia's overbearing but "often right" mother quickly arranges for Julia to spend two weeks at music camp, where Julia partially recovers her sense of self. Before the final Russia showdown--postponed once by the emergence of 17-year cicadas--readers learn about less-than-cool Wendy, loyal to Julia but dandruff-blighted; Julia's crush on her neighbor Peter; Julia's first bra; and why Julia's dream bedroom has been temporarily put on hold. The novel's underlying tone of superiority, supported by the implicit assurance that life gets better for people who are "passionate about stuff," is confirmed in the ending acknowledgments: "And an extra special thanks to the two girls who made my life on Albourne Avenue so miserable. Victory is mine." Despite the evergreen theme, Julia's whining is more likely to turn readers off than help them relate to her. (Fiction. 9-11)

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March 1, 2014

Gr 5-7-Several battles are being waged on Darcy Lane this summer, all of which involve Julia Richards, a supersmart 12-year-old with a passion for reading and the clarinet. She persistently challenges her kind, but protective, parents for a bra, a cell phone, and a less babyish bedroom. She fiercely competes with new-girl-on-the-block Alyssa for the attention of maybe-best-friend Taylor. And she struggles mightily to make sense of who she is and who she might be. (On considering the unicorns and dolls that adorn her room: "I wanted to get rid of everything. The problem was this: I had nothing to put in its place.") Altebrando's clear, intelligent writing captures the sweet details that comprise Julia's everyday life: a fresh coat of paint for her bedroom, a brilliant band-camp concert, a slice of birthday cake shared compatibly with the boy next door. While the book's setting is never explicated, references to a historic cicada swarm plus talk of the "island," the "city," and the "ferry" likely place the story in 2013 and on Staten Island, the author's hometown. Frequent use of the cicada as a marker for nature and time ("I tried to think ahead, another seventeen years, to imagine what things would be like when the cicadas come back") feels a bit forced and may confuse readers unfamiliar with the phenomenon, but this is a slight misstep in an otherwise charming and authentic first purchase.-Susan Wengler, Saint Dominic Academy, Jersey City, NJ

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2014
Grades 3-6 Twelve-year-old Julia is looking forward to spending her summer playing with her best friend, Taylor, and nursing a crush on her neighbor Peter. But when a new girl, Alyssa, moves in across the street, suddenly Taylor doesn't want to be friends anymore. For a while, Julia tries to fit in with Alyssa and Taylor, even learning their complicated handball game, but Alyssa and Taylor get meaner and meaner, calling Julia names, teasing her for being nervous about grown-up TV shows, and calling her house so often her mother unplugs the phone. Luckily, Julia's stalwart and loving parents, along with a handful of true friends, help her develop the confidence to be happy with herself. This quietly empowering story from the author of The Best Night of Your (Pathetic) Life (2013) is a refreshingly honest take on bullying. Julia is a flawed but earnest girl, and she learns how to deal with mean girls at her own pace and with cheer-worthy dignity. Readers searching for something similar to the books of Beverly Cleary or Judy Blume should look no further.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)