Pages: 339
Rating: G
Summary: When Tara, a self-proclaimed shrinking violet, steals the school mascot, a goat, in order to make some friends with the popular crowd and gets caught, she gets herself in a heap of trouble. In addition, her parents decide that instead of taking her on their summer trip to Madagascar to study the courtship rituals of the Bamboo Lemur, she must go stay with her aunt, uncle, and bratty cousin Emily St. Claire in Willow Falls. Tara thinks it's a good time to start over; she'll be turning 13 after all, so she might as well make the best of it and perhaps even attempt to break out of her shell (in a non-criminal manner). What Tara doesn't know is that this charmed town has something big in store for her on her 13th birthday. It's not a typical birthday. But then again, nothing is Willow Falls is exactly typical!
My Thoughts: Eh. This is a book that's all well and good for a preteen. I'd say it's definitely interesting, with weird twists you don't expect, but I felt like some of it was overdramatic, and a lot of the stuff Tara does or has to deal with in the book just works out WAY too easily. There aren't really any true obstacles. Everything she comes up against seems like an issue for all of like 10 minutes and then the problems are solved in some quick and simple way that in real life would probably never happen.
Also, I was annoyed because there are a few mysteries in the book that don't really get solved because they have to do with other characters and apparently they have their own books, 11 Birthdays, and Finally. So that bothered me. You get to hear the end of Tara's story, but there are these two odd characters Leo and Amanda and something fishy is going on with them the entire book, yet it ends without you ever getting to find out what's going on with them.
Like I said, this is definitely a clean and wonderful book for the 10-14 age group, but I found a lot lacking in it from an adult perspective.
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