MIRACLE ON 49TH STREET
by Mike Lupica
Twelve-year-old Molly Parker loves “happy-ending fairy-tale” movies such as The Princess Diaries and Miracle on 34th Street. But her own life seems like a gigantic puzzle with the pieces not quite coming together. Her mother died of cancer, and she thinks her father is Josh Cameron, star of the Boston Celtics. Whether Josh will acknowledge Molly as his daughter or will “play her” to protect his good-guy image in the press is the tension in this story that dissects layers of Molly’s self-deception, faulty reasoning and earnest hopes, and the layers of entrapment a sports star can experience. Though some readers will find the fairy-tale ending melodramatic, others will find it perfectly in tune with the way Molly dreams her life will turn out, and predictable for Josh, who had given up on happy endings. Add this to Lupica’s Travel Team (2004) and Heat (April 2006) for well-written sports novels with sure-fire fan appeal. (Fiction. 10-14)