Throw in the magical realism from "Crenshaw" and the Middle School coming-of-age story from "The Truth About Jellyfish" and you have a fun tale of a girl, a grandpa and an experiment which goes wrong -- or right, depending on your point of view. For a simple book (it was actually on a lower reading level than I expected), there is a lot of symbolism and metaphor here. The title is a good example, as it begins and ends the story, but is more about what it represents than a significant part of the action. The plot is easy to get, but has layers. The main character, Ellie, is betwixt and between in many ways. She needs to find her role as a non-dramatic person in a dramatic family and she wants to understand how friendships change as you enter the sixth grade. The book is a page-turner with big print, wide margins and chapters which last only a few pages. In short, it's a very accessible story which has been enjoyed by a wide variety of kids. With a little of everything (mystery, humor, romance, adventure) and not too much of anything, it is neither preachy nor pedantic. The vocabularly and sentence structure, not to mention the funny bits, make it very Elementary appropriate, but there is extremely subtle subtext which made it equally enjoyable as an adult reader. Threads about aging, the differences between the generations, loss and the modern family structure are only part of the scenarios explored. A quick read delight. Highly recommended.
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