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BOX TOP DREAMS by Miriam Glassman

BOX TOP DREAMS

by Miriam Glassman

Pub Date: Feb. 1st, 1998
ISBN: 0-385-32532-0
Publisher: Delacorte

A sympathetically written growing-up novel with a likable heroine, Ariadne, whose fifth-grade year is fraught with changes. Ari and her best friend Danny share a passion for old movies, mail-away offers advertised in tiny print in the back of magazines, and a private backyard fantasy game they call Quest for Survival. They've been working for months on a paper chain made of folded gum wrappers, in hopes of making the Guinness Book of World Records. Then Danny moves away, Ari is first taken up and then ostracized by a clique led by her manipulative classmate Martina, and her adored teacher is absent just when Ari needs her most. Painful experiences all, but gradually Ari learns to accept that her relationship with Danny will never be quite the same, summons the courage to stand up to Martina's bullying, and finds a new friendship. This is a totally believable portrait of a decent, ordinary girl coming to terms with change and putting away childish things. The school scenes are particularly strong and dead-on relevant to readers' concerns. (Fiction. 9-12)