The Moon and More

Gr 9 Up—Dessen aims for the Moon with her latest novel and manages the landing quite wonderfully. Readers looking for a story as warm and real as The Truth About Forever (Viking, 2004) need look no further. Emaline works hard, both in school and at her family's realty office with three generations of women handling beach-vacation rentals in the small southern town of Colby. Her efforts get her accepted to Columbia, but when her birth father, back in her life after being absent for 10 years, suddenly and inexplicably withdraws his offer of substantial help, she has to settle for a less-prestigious school just two hours away. One advantage: her boyfriend, Luke, will also be there. Summer starts off normally: her dad, the one who married her teenaged mother and adopted Emaline years ago, is still fixing up their house; her older stepsister is bossing her around at work; and Em is passing out keys and towels and hanging around with her best friends, Daisy and Morris. Characters are crafted with care to be whole and realistic, so readers will be immersed when Emaline meets the New Yorkers who rent a mansion for the summer to make a documentary about local character Clyde, once quite a big deal on the art scene. Theo, the filmmaker's cute assistant, seems smitten with Emaline; and when Luke indulges in clubbing with a pretty tourist, the dream couple breaks up, enabling Emaline to spend some time with someone new. Complications romantic and familial help crystallize the strength in Emaline as her understanding transitions from youth to adulthood.—Suzanne Gordon, Lanier High School, Sugar Hill, GA