14 Hollow Road by Jenn Bishop - ADVISABLE

Bishop, Jenn 14 Hollow Road, 280 pages.  Knopf (Random), 2017.  $17.  Language: PG (5 swears, 0 ‘f’); Mature Content: G; Violence: G.

One minute Maddie is worrying about her best friend/crush, Avery dancing with one of her friends at the sixth grade dance,  The next she has to worry about a hurricane ripping through her small town.  When the winds stop, the problems have only begun, because both her house and Avery’s have been destroyed.  A kind neighbor has offered to let both families stay at their house for the summer – until they can figure things out.  Now Maddie has to LIVE with Avery?  He might hear her in the bathroom?  See her with bedhead?  This is a recipe for disaster!

Bishop has an uncanny ability to get right into the head of a pre-teen girl and show how the angst of growing up can intersect and interact with crises big and small, feeling overwhelming at times.  The title doesn’t really help convey the plot or action of the book, so you might to handsel it a few times first.  But for girls who are looking for a realistic book with a protagonist who sounds like them, this is pitch perfect.

EL, MS - ADVISABLE.  Cindy, Library Teacher