• Location: in the reading chair
• Mood: contemplative
• Music: theme from Wil and Grace

always a reason to celebrate: a new novel by Norma Fox Mazer

So here it is a few days after Christmas. We took down the tree yesterday and Scout is still looking for it. However, we have our living room space back, and Scout also can look out all the windows in the front of the house. All is well, I think. The resident teens got to spend some of their Christmas loot yesterday courtesy of big sister, Cali. They cleaned out closets to make room for the new stuff. We dropped bags of discards off already. It's beginning to look a lot like a New Year.


I had some quiet time this morning to finish reading the new Norma Fox Mazer, THE MISSING GIRL. Told in several voices, it is the story of a tumultuous family with five daughters: Autumn, Fancy, Mim, Stevie, and Beauty. As they go about their daily lives dealing with a mother who smokes so much she wheezes as she climbs stairs and a father on disability, and the slings and arrows of mean kids at school, they are being watched by a man. He fantasizes about which one would be the best one to take home for himself. That is when the creepiness begins to climb up the spine. It takes strong hold and does not let go in this novel of suspense and intensity.

Mazer has explored the dark side of human nature before. Her books have dealt with abuse (OUT OF CONTROL), loss of a loved family member (AFTER THE RAIN), and the Holocaust (G0OD NIGHT MAMAN). However, I think she might fly under the radar for some. Take her new novel to your teen readers and be sure to have her other titles nearby.