Mary Amato has written a witty book about a spunky kid.  It is funny and sad and…  and I learned about naked mole-rats and I didn’t notice!  Her website shares that the novel was inspired by her own childhood but didn’t exactly mirror it.  Her mother died, and her father’s remarriage began with a chance meeting and then developed by mail.  (Snail mail – not e-mail in those days.)  But Amato gave her character Frankie (Francine) more chutzpah than she had herself.  “Sometimes authors write the books they wish they had lived.”

The novel is told in a series of e-mails, diary entries and narrative sections.  It flows easily and is a hard book to put down!  Amato has managed to write a heartfelt book about a realistic kid, with realistic problems, emotions and reactions.  Unlike Caroline Cooney’s Code Orange which beat me about the head with facts about smallpox and information literacy (see July 14 post), The Naked Mole-Rat Letters seemlessly blends information into the narrative. 

It also provides some pretty good counseling and advice, likewise quite seemlessly.  (Unlike Twice Upon A Marigold!)  Frankie’s problem avoidance techniques get her into trouble.  She is a good kid, but once the lying and the hiding start, the web is indeed tangled.  And the emotional roller-coaster ride Frankie is on I found extremely realistic.  I remember one of my daughters who showed up at my desk at school sobbing.  Nothing happened, nothing was wrong… she just couldn’t quit crying.  Sixth and seventh grade girls sometimes just have to overreact!  I let her go home and sleep it off. 

The book made me laugh, the book made me cry, the book was inspiring, and I learned something new.  What more can you ask from a middler novel?  I recommend you add this book to your next order… and in the meantime, you can watch naked mole-rats on live web cam at the National Zoo website!  But be quiet!  They were sleeping when I tuned in…