Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

Ever since Sammie's father left, she's felt "bouncy," uncertain about her routine and her place in the world: her mother is mostly interested in going out with a friend and snagging herself a new man, and her older sisters are absorbed in an older-sister world of cool. She's finally finding some stability in the afterschool program at the Avenue Z Club, but the desire for some class cred leads her to claim she's collected the most money for a charitable endeavor, a claim she must make good on by stealing a fellow Avenue Z-goer's money. The plot is fairly purposive and predictable and the message clear: Sammie comes clean, obtains forgiveness, regains trust, and learns her lesson, with some added closeness with her sisters to boot. What sets this British import apart from other standard series fare is Sammie's authentically raw and anxious narration and its relatively undoctored British flavor; the depiction of Sammie's mother, troublingly self-centered to the point of taking her daughter's money in order to keep up with her friend's spending, is carefully unsettling without [End Page 281] being cheaply dismissive. This would therefore be a usefully quick and accessible read for kids who've tired of the blandness of similar American entries.