Wednesday, December 18, 2013

The Dirt Diary by Anna Staniszewski

Rachel's trouble all starts when she "borrows" $300 from her college funds to go visit her father in Florida.  She has hopes of bringing him home and making her family whole again, but missing a parent doesn't mean you understood why they left...

Sourcebooks gave me an ebook of this story to read for their blog tour (thank you).  The book has been published and you can get a copy at your local bookstore now.

Rachel knows she has to pay that money back, so she volunteers to work with her mother doing housecleaning.  She'll save her earnings and hopefully get that back in the bank without her Mom knowing.  Sure thing, kid.

Housecleaning is not what gets Rachel in trouble; it's what she writes in her diary.  She writes about odd things she's found in the homes they clean.  When secrets from her diary start getting spread around, she thinks she knows who is doing it.  She's wrong.  And her assumptions about what she's found are wrong, too.

When her worst enemy reads the part about how she has a crush on the enemy's brother, things really go south.  Rachel has a lot to deal with in a short period of time, but somehow she comes through it.  There are a few tears along the way.  Puberty is like that.  She bounces back, more honest, more mature, and more "Rachel".

I enjoyed reading this.  Rachel is a bit insecure at school and I was, too.  I came from a parochial class of 24 into a freshman class of 200.  I had people that didn't like me, too.  And I also survived.

Ms. Staniszewski includes humor, expresses an understanding that some people act the way they do because they are fighting their own battles or handling their own crisis, and she makes Rachel human.  I'd recommend this book for anyone uncomfortable at school or with life in general.  It also makes a good read about a heavy subject.

Why not give it a try?

Happy reading.  

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