In Kat Yeh's (The Magic Brush) first novel, she introduces a smart, winning narrator in 12-year-old narrator Galileo Galilei ("GiGi") Barnes.
As much as GiGi loves her older sister, DiDi, who's raised her ever since their mother's death, she misses her mother terribly. And somewhere deep down, she's not convinced her mother's dead. DiDi, determined to get her and GiGi out of their South Carolina trailer park, wins a bake-off contest to the tune of $1 million and moves them to Long Island in New York. Throughout the narrative, Yeh scatters recipes with funny names such as Mama's Turn Over a New Leaf Turnovers, Love at First Salad and the title's Famous Twinkie Pie. Gigi also has her own Recipe for Success; chief among the ingredients is "hang out with real friends my own age." And that's what happens when she meets Trip: "I've always been what you might call a Front Row type of girl, but Trip led me all the way to the back," she says. Certain that her mother is still alive, GiGi returns to South Carolina to search for her. What she finds down South surprises her, and what she discovers about Trip (aka "Perfect Boy") and Mace (aka "the evil supervillain) surprises her, too.
GiGi's authentic voice will pull readers into her story, with universal themes of leaving a town you love, making a friend, having it threatened and redefining your recipe for success. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness