The synopsis: Emma is resigned to the seeming reality that her name, spoken aloud, is her identity. Just 12, bright and nearly six feet tall, she feels invisible at school in her New England coastal town. Her mother, Donatella, owns a bead shop, and the many beads in her shop, with individual shapes, colors, and origins, are an apt metaphor for the novel's cast of varied characters. Quiet Emma, for instance, keeps lists to organize her life and often feels like the adult to her short, round Italian mother, who dresses and acts like a teenager. She wonders if she's adopted like her friend, Penelope, a nine-year-old from Liberia, who lives with her two mothers across the street and urges Emma to find her "joylah." Emma is dubious when Donatella proposes that she be homeschooled at the public library, but school officials agree to the proposal, and Stevie, a cool librarian, becomes her tutor. Then she receives an invitation to the Freke Family Reunion at a Wisconsin campground and flies out to meet the clan of Walter Freke, the father she's never met. The reunion proves to be a life-changing weekend, for Emma connects with cousins who look like her, gains a sense of belonging, and discovers her surname rhymes with Becky. Yet, upon seeing the rigid control enforced by the reunion organizer, she begins to appreciate her unstructured home life and confidently stands up against the culture of intolerance aimed at her eccentric, odd-looking cousin, who, like her old self, just doesn't fit in.

My thoughts: I didn't have high hopes for this novel, although it sounded like an interesting story - it also sounded vaguely similar to many coming of age "message" novels from when I was a kid. Happily, I can say I was completely wrong that it would feel formulaic. A unique story with a protagonist who started out extremely unhappy and insecure, I could sense her confidence growing in the conveyance of her story and that in itself was pretty rare to me. Couple that with delightfully awkward characters, events, and scenarios, and this was an extremely enjoyable book that is perfect for the age group it's geared towards, and many other age ranges.

The synopsis:

Where's a Fairy Godmother When You Need One?

For Taylor Young life is very good. She has a handsome husband who loves her, three gorgeous children, a personally designed and decorated dream house. Suburbanite trendsetter and super mom—life couldn’t be more perfect. And as long as no one notices the fragile woman beneath her coifed and polished image, things will stay that way.

Then, a devastating secret bursts Taylor’s fairy-tale bubble, suddenly making her a cul-de-sac pariah, and stripping her of the role that defined her. With her struggling to maintain her alpha image, Taylor finds help from the unlikeliest of people, her nonconformist nemesis, Marta Zinsser. But to become the woman her family truly needs, Taylor must first believe in the person she is hardest on—herself.

My thoughts: I can't really say anything I haven't said before about Jane Porter. The second of four interspersed, but stand alone novels, this was probably my least favorite of the four but I still loved it. Porter is a breath of fresh air in the chick lit world, always a bit quirky but with an ending guaranteed to satisfy without being overly predictable.