The Battle of Darcy Lane
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5.0 • 3 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
It is summertime, and twelve-year-old Julia Richards cannot stand the anticipation. Everyone on Darcy Lane seems to be holding their breath waiting for the cicadas to emerge, but what Julia and her best friend, Taylor, want is some real excitement. Which arrives in the form of a new neighbor named Alyssa, who introduces a ball game called Russia . . . and an unwelcome level of BFF rivalry.
Suddenly nothing stands unchallenged-not Julia's friendships, her crush, or her independence. But while Julia realizes that she cannot control all the changes in her life, she hangs onto the hope that everything will go in her favor if she can just win one magnificent showdown.
Acclaimed author Tara Altebrando's middle-grade debut features a voice that is true to the adolescent experience, where everything is felt acutely in a whirlwind of all-or-nothing emotion.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Altebrando (The Best Night of Your Life) makes a confident detour into middle-grade with this pensive summer-of-change story. Her 12-year-old old heroine, Julia, isn't quite so confident: a new girl, Alyssa, has moved onto Darcy Lane, and her arrival drives an immediate wedge between Julia and best friend Taylor. Sniping comments are traded, feelings are hurt, pranks are deployed, and crushes on boys are wielded as weapons, all building to a faceoff between Julia and Alyssa in a competitive ball-bouncing game called Russia (playing instructions are included). Altebrando brings rich, realistic depth to all of her characters, including Julia's very-in-love parents their interactions with Julia are easily as important to the story as Julia's strained friendships. The author provides just enough glimpses into Taylor and Alyssa's home lives to generate a bit of empathy for them (even when they're being truly cruel to Julia), without letting them off the hook and Julia isn't blameless either. It's a smart, sensitive portrait of an age when change is in the air, for better or worse. Ages 8 12.
