The Naked Mole-Rat Letters by Mary Amato

THIS IS MY NEW FAVORITE OF THIS YEAR'S REBECCA CAUDILL LIST.

I really enjoyed this story from beginning to end. I love the real life events that happen to the main character who is a middle school girl with two younger brothers. Their mother passed away, thus the narrator feels the extra pressure of helping with the children and the house. Prior to the time of the story, "Frankie", the main character and narrator, is a straight A student who is well trusted and respected at school. Through the course of this story, she ditches school, shreds a library book, lies repeatedly, cheats on a test, badgers her brothers, loses her youngest brother, hacks into her father's email, starts the kitchen on fire, and runs-off her father's girlfriend. Frankie makes friends with a boy (Johnny) that is not accepted at school by her other friends. She struggles to decide whether or not to chance being friends with him at the risk of losing her other friends. As a reader, we also see the change of relationship and behavior between Frankie, her father, and her father's secret girlfriend.

My biggest complaint about this story is that I wanted more at the end. I want to see the outcome of the relationship between Johnny and Frankie, and the relationship between Frankie's dad and Ayanna ( his secret girlfriend that takes care of naked mole-rats at the zoo.)

The story is a very easy read, written in a combination of e-mail and diary entries.

You might want to have tissue available for the last 25 pages!! Hope you like this one. I did.