Dear George Clooney, Please Marry My Mom by Susin Nielsen

This book was written by the same author as Word Nerd, and I gave it a rating of four out of five. Violet's movie-director father has an affair and moves to California where he lives with his new wife and two-year-old twins. Violet is not dealing well with the situation. She flies out to California with her little sister to visit, but they're sent home the next day when Violet makes a very poor decision. Luckily, Violet has her best friend for support as she tries to handle the divorce and life in the seventh grade. Her mother is dating various men that Violet thinks are losers. Now, she's dating Dudley Wiener, and he's clearly not good enough for her mom. Just look at his name! The only person good enough for her mom is George Clooney, and she gets ideas when she discovers he is filming a movie in the same area as her father. An apology and another trip to California may be in the future.

I enjoyed Violet's character as she deals with her life. She has trouble understanding her feelings about her father and mother after the divorce. She loves them, hates them, and doesn't know how to behave around them. She swears she'll never have a boyfriend, but that was before Jean-Paul shows an interest in her. Thing One and Thing Two are giving her a hard time at school, and she snaps when they show Facebook pictures of her mom to her classmates. Hopefully, most girls don't behave the same way as Violet, but girls dealing with divorce can probably appreciate her feelings.

Lexile level from lexile.com 700