THE SISTERS CLUB

Middle-sister awkwardness turns into aplomb for ten-year-old Stevie, sandwiched between 12-year-old Alex and eight-year-old Joey. Despite their differing interests and personalities, the three sisters have a special bond, referring to themselves as a club, holding meetings, play dates and sleepovers in each other’s rooms. Stevie gingerly views her role in this theatrically oriented family with growing responsibility and confidence as she and her sisters explore dramatic playacting, cooking disasters and budding boyfriend interests (or not). Joey’s handwritten reports, poems and letters to her sock monkey and Alex’s typed scripts and essays punctuate Stevie’s engaging first-person narration; Consolazio’s illustrations add to the fun. McDonald deftly introduces a new set of witty, amiable characters with whom tweens will easily identify. Engaging dialogue and some laugh-out-loud moments will leave readers hoping for another installment. (Fiction. 8-10)