. Sway

Gr 4–6—Cass Nordenhauer, 10, wants to be just like her mom, who is a disaster-response volunteer. Toodi Bleu's life is so exciting—she's off rescuing people for months at a time, while Cass is stuck at home in Alabama with her boring dad. Cass has high hopes that she'll accompany her mom on some missions this summer, but instead, Toodi runs off with a man she met doing rescue work. The story really takes off when Cass's father steps up to provide his daughter with another sort of summer adventure—crisscrossing the South in a beat-up RV named The Roast, giving away something called Sway. He has a suitcase full of soap slivers, all supposedly belonging to famous historical figures. Anyone who washes with one will get some sway, taking on the characteristics of its previous owner. This leads to many memorable (if a little sappy) encounters and exchanges among Cass, her dad, and the folks they meet, as well as some painful truths that Cass learns about her parents and life itself. The colorful writing can be a little much (like Toodi's constant rhyming couplets), and Cass's believability is strained at times (what 10-year-old can recognize fake antiques but accepts that the soap slivers really belonged to Napoleon and Mother Teresa?), but by the end, Cass will have worked her quirky way into readers' hearts.—Jenny Berggren, New York Public Library