SINCERELY

Two uninspired novels bound together in one feature Sophie and Katie, sixth-grade girls who have been assigned to each other as pen pals. Sincerely, Sophie chronicles the happenings in Californian Sophie’s life. Sophie’s best friend Jessie becomes obsessed with boys and starts to hang out with new friends, abandoning Sophie entirely. To make matters worse, the boy Jessie likes has his eye on Sophie. This makes Jessie behave cruelly to Sophie, who handles the situation maturely by finding new friends of her own. In Sincerely, Katie, New Yorker Katie is having problems of her own with her sister, her mother, her best friend Jake, Jake’s new girlfriend and the jog-a-thon they are organizing as a fundraiser for earthquake victims. Each volume includes letters between Sophie and Katie—a promising concept. Unfortunately, though, the result is repetitive and lifeless. Neither girl is all that likable (particularly Katie, who moans over a catalog of problems, the worst of which are of her own making). Further, the supposed bond developing between the two pen pals feels forced and unconvincing. A miss. (Fiction. 8-12)