CAMILLE MCPHEE FELL UNDER THE BUS...

Camille McPhee’s father warns her: “Don’t expect life to be fair.” Is it fair that hypoglycemic Camille’s the only kid who has to carry extra food to school in a cooler? Is it fair when her best friend Sally moves from Idaho to Japan, making fourth grade “pretty rough”? Is it fair kids call Camille “soccer-ball head” even though she has thick, movie-star hair? Is it fair she slipped on ice and slid under the school bus? Is it fair her cat disappeared or her parents fight over money and might be splitting? Eleven-year-old Camille understands life is full of ups and downs, but how can so many unfair things happen to one person? Although Camille wryly relates her fourth-grade saga in the first person with droll humor, it’s clear she’s afraid to make new friends and even more afraid of what’s happening to her parents. But at heart, Camille’s a survivor, “born with the power to bounce back,” which she does with surprising panache and hope in this touching debut. (Fiction. 8-12)