Camille McPhee Fell under the Bus (review)
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It's a bad school year for Camille McPhee: her best friend, Sally Zook, has moved to Japan, leaving Camille to face fourth grade on her own, and she's already a bit of an outsider, with her need to bring a portable cooler of snacks to stave off hypoglycemia. Deciding she's a brave loner (she models herself after a solitary dingo [End Page 42] she once saw at the zoo), she rejects the friendly overtures of her neighbor, Polly, whose father was killed in an accident a few years ago. That family crisis is another reason for Camille to steer clear of Polly, since Camille's parents are increasingly embattled, and Camille is trying desperately to convince herself that her family isn't going to change. Debut novelist Tracy develops a wonderful voice for Camille, innocent and vivid and deeply comic ("I was expecting my own life to be terrific, lengthy, and at some point filled with ponies"), and there's a deft balance between plausible blindness and reader-helpful enlightenment about her motives. Yet her anxiety about her family's strain is keenly felt, and this is actually an unusually vivid portrayal of a parental marriage drifting into a downward spiral (a portrait unfortunately undermined by the speedy everything's-suddenly-solved ending). The blend of humor and truthfulness ("I knew that I lied to my father, but I had no idea he lied back") will speak to young readers, who will sympathize with Camille and rejoice in her eventually improved lot.
