THROWBACK THURSDAY Book Review: TRACING STARS by Erin E. Moulton

On the last day of school, Indie Lee Chickory discovers a stow-away in her backpack: The Lobster Monty Cola, her pet golden lobster. In a series of misadventures involving a kickball, a chase, and a police siren, she ends up losing him in the ocean that day.

Indie wants to make things better: to find Monty Cola with the help of her new friend Owen, to regain the relationship she used to have with her sister, Bebe, before Bebe went all perfectionista on her, and to be a better Indie Lee Chickory.

But the Indie Lee Chickory she is when she’s looking for Monty Cola with Owen is a different Indie Lee Chickory from the one she is when she’s trying to be a better sister. The two Indie Lee Chickorys seem mutually exclusive.

One wears Carhartts and works in the set design studio with a pierced and fierce Mohawk-hair girl named Sloth. That Indie Lee recites fish names and makes fish faces, like the trout pout, to make people laugh.

The other Indie Lee wears French braids and matching outfits. She tells white lies to impress other people, and she does mean things, all in the name of helping her sister “network.”

In looking for The Lobster Monty Cola, she discovers the junction where these two Indie Lee Chickorys meet, and finds peace in her own skin, knowing she’s the best Indie Lee Chickory she can be.

This is a middle grade book with heart and hope, family and friends, and a whole lot of fish. Highly recommended.

Note: for the sensitive, there is one swear word in the text.

Originally published in Quirk and Quill 6.21.12

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