Destiny, Rewritten

Gr 5–7—Eleven-year-old Emily Elizabeth Davis's flighty mother reveals that Emily's rare volume of Emily Dickinson's poetry not only embodies her destiny to become a great poet, but also contains the name of Emily's unknown father scribbled somewhere in the margins. Unfortunately, Emily loses the book. Thus begins the plucky girl's search through Berkeley to find the lost collection, a series of adventures that force her to examine her beliefs about destiny, romance, and self-determination. Fitzmaurice creates a believable and relatable protagonist, but also develops funny secondary characters-including tree-dwelling environmentalists; a military-obsessed younger cousin; a faithful and smart best friend; and, of course, her scatter-brained, English professor mother. A clean, safe, child-friendly version of Berkeley features prominently. Fitzmaurice finds ways for Emily to evaluate different attitudes about fate through the many pages of this long book, especially via clever discussions about and references to Laura Ingalls Wilder, Danielle Steel, Star Wars, and many other cultural or literary elements. A sweet book that should appeal to fans of Wendy Mass, Joan Bauer, Sharon Creech, and the like.—Rhona Campbell, Georgetown Day School, Washington, DC