This feel-good tale about the social pecking order of tweens in rural Virginia has likable characters and a positive message, but its persistent down-home twanginess gets downright annoying at times. Jessie Lou Ferguson, a poem-writing tomboy who chops off hunks of her hair when she's piqued, secretly adores Conrad Parker Smith, the "it" boy of Cabanash County Elementary. Conrad's popularity unconvincingly plummets when he injures his leg, throwing Jessie and Conrad together. A lackluster mystery provides reason for Jessie and Conrad, plus an amusing sidekick named Quentin, to meet each day for a new adventure. Though the pervasive theme of popularity and the idea that "keeping on the right side of the crowd can be tricky and unpredictable" may resonate with readers familiar with the "in crowd," Stone's (All the Blue Moons at the Wallace Hotel ) characters don't seem authentic. Her sixth-grade girls are old enough to covet the attention of boys, yet still wear fairy wings to school before a party. And Jessie Lou's small-town Southernness ("I hauled off with a nice big old pair of scissors and cut my hair practically down to the bone.... so short, you couldn't spit on it") comes close to clich. Add a sluggish pace and readers may find that, like the muddy banks of the Cabanash River, this book is hard to plow through. Ages 9-12. (Mar. )

Gr 4–6— "I had stars all over my reading notebooks and stars all over my report cards and nobody I could really call a friend." So says sixth-grader Jessie Lou, a gawky, insecure tomboy with a longtime crush on "deep down popular " classmate Conrad. His popularity wanes when he hurts his leg and has to wear a brace, and before long he's down to only two friends: Jessie and tagalong fourth-grader Quentin Duster. Narrated by Jessie, this contemporary story is set in West Taluka Falls, VA. The various elements include the arrival of a shopping mall (will the beloved local hardware store be knocked out by the new Big Box Home and Hardware?), Jessie's older sister's entry in a beauty contest, a Lewis and Clark assignment at school, an air show, tulip bulbs, an abandoned house where Jessie writes poetry, a granddaddy who does jigsaw puzzles of the presidents, and the eccentricities of Jessie's family and friends. If this seems like a lot going on, it is. Some of it is interesting, and Stone's writing is often rhythmic and colorful ("There's a fine line between a fourth grader and a baby and Quentin Duster just crossed that line"). But the protagonist's voice is at times stilted, and the rambling plot sometimes moves slowly. For a realistic novel about small-town life in the South, try Deborah Wiles's Each Little Bird That Sings (Harcourt, 2005).—Lauralyn Persson, Wilmette Public Library, IL