AFTER ALL, YOU’RE CALLIE BOONE

Callie’s summer looks glum. Hurt from being inexplicably dumped by her best friend and then banned from the community pool after a very public belly-flop, things seem like they can only get worse. Enter new next-door neighbor, Hoot, an easygoing boy who, refreshingly, does not get caught up in what everybody thinks. Soon Hoot’s companionship and her beloved father’s dedicated diving lessons help Callie evolve from a self-absorbed, self-conscious, easily influenced and rather self-pitying little girl into an understanding, hardworking, thicker-skinned and confident young adult. Mack has a knack for getting her well-developed characters’ voices right, especially Callie’s when she is caught in yet another embarrassing moment: “I felt hollow inside, like there was nothing but stale air where my bones and organs were supposed to be.” Good pacing leads the story to a climactic family tragedy in which Callie believably realizes the true meaning of friendship as well as the value in a strong, supportive, if quirky, family. Dive in, this story is fine. (Fiction. 8-12)