REALLY NO BIG DEAL

Jonah Truman faces seventh grade with confusion about his changing feelings about girls, frustration over his short stature, and (fortunately) a wry sense of humor. Anxious to earn money for a class trip, he allows longtime friend Amanda to persuade him to join her as a party aid. This work provides some mildly amusing moments, but Jonah's biggest problem is that his mother has begun dating his school principal. His struggle to accept this relationship himself, yet keep it secret from his schoolmates, is the solid base over which the rest of the book's action flutters. Bechard's lively style will keep readers turning the pages; a dinner-table scene, in which the principal's grown daughter has invited Jonah's entire family to meet hers, is sharply observed and genuinely funny, as is a fight between Jonah and another seventh-grader who has taunted him once too often. An enjoyable read. (Fiction. 10-13)