TRUE BLUE

A terrible car accident has crippled Molly’s father and shattered her life in this slight but moving friendship tale. Molly has to start a new, cheaper school—where, inexplicably, all the students are very wealthy—now that her family is living on her mother’s waitress income. Her schooldays are tortured by snotty, rich Vanessas and Courtneys, and every evening she comforts her depressed and newly quadriplegic father. Her only friend is the school freak, Chrys Lepido, who always wears an overcoat and eats milkweed for lunch. Chrys and Molly form a science fair team, and advance to the finals with their butterfly models. But Chrys has a secret deformity, and Molly is worried that her father will never recover. Together, as true friends, they find forgiveness, self-respect, and victory. The magic of technology makes for a pat, but satisfyingly happy, epilogue. (Fiction. 9-12)