Eleven (The Winnie Years)
Gr. 4-7. This light novel, which opens with an eleventh birthday and ends with a twelfth, recounts narrator Winnie's year as she reluctantly grows apart from her best friend, Amanda, and grows closer to Dinah, a girl she previously pitied. Her disappointment when Amanda becomes occupied with fashion and boys and finds a new best friend is deftly portrayed, as is Winnie's increasing respect for the awkward but kind Dinah. The stilted structure of covering one month per chapter, each with a main episode, creates a choppy pace that detracts from the effectiveness of an otherwise enjoyable read, but all three girls, and Winnie's sulky older sister, come across as fully rounded characters that interact in believable ways.Kathleen OdeanCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.