Lucy Rose, Here’s the Thing About Me by Katy KellyDelacorte (Random House), 2004

When eight-year-old Lucy Rose’s parents separate, she and her mom move to Washington D.C., where her grandparents live. What follows is a pretty standard story, told in the form of diary entries, of getting used to a new place, making friends, and having child-sized adventures. Lucy Rose is smart, and her voice is really endearing, as in this description of the class guinea pig: “and I am wild for him like anything, partly because he is cute in the face but also because of his personality which is extremely excellent, especially considering he can’t talk” (p 15).