research for the social improvement and general betterment of Lydia Goldblatt & Julie Graham-Chang
Ignatow, Amy
2010
Two best friends embark on a project to study the behavior and taste of the popular girls at their elementary school so that by the time they get to middle school they too will be in the right crowd. Novel appears in the form of a scrapbook.
Twelve-year-old best friends Julie and Lydia are reunited after six months apart, but the news that their friend Sukie's mother has died after a long illness causes them to reevaluate their goals and focus on being supportive of the friends they already have.
Two best friends are separated when Lydia's mother takes a job in London for six months, where Lydia tries to adjust to being an American in an English school and Julie has to deal with the cliques of junior high and a group of troublemakers who want to take her under their wing.
When Julie and Roland become an official couple, Lydia and Julie try to find romantic guidance, while Lydia's mother announced her plans to marry Lydia's soccer coach, Eric.
In 1895 Michigan, Stan, eleven, will do almost anything to help his mother financially, even babysitting, but his long-lost father shows up and proves to be a big disappointment.
Lydia and Julie decide to start a rock band with their friends, unfortunately, none of them are very good musicians and suddenly the whole school knows about their band and wants to hear them play.
In 1895, twelve-year-old Stan decides to find his long-lost father in the logging camps of Michigan, documenting in his scrapbook his travels and encounters with troublesome relatives, his mother's suitors, lumberjacks, and more.
