LILY B. ON THE BRINK OF LOVE

Future world-famous writer Lily Blennerhassett is on the brink of success. Not only is she the advice columnist for her middle-school paper, but she’s been offered a job as assistant to a Real Writer. But with everything else going well, why does Lily lose all her hard-earned cool whenever the object of her adoration, The Boy, walks by? With the help of her friends, business-like Charlotte and new-ager Bonnie, Lily tries (unsuccessfully) to impress The Boy by learning rock climbing. Meanwhile, she discovers that assisting a genuine author isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Though Lily has prepared carefully for her job (with a new wardrobe of Balinese dancing pants and jangly earrings that clearly mark her as a serious-minded scholar), she’s asked only to fetch coffee and clean keyboards. Lily’s thoroughly amusing befuddlement resolves satisfyingly with predictable yet delightful epiphanies. Heartwarming and funny, with supporting characters who are just as cleverly constructed as the heroine. (Fiction. 9-14)