Penelope March is Melting by Jeffrey Michael Ruby - OPTIONAL

Penelope March is Melting by Jeffrey Michael Ruby, 310 pages.  Delacorte (Random House), 2017, $17.

Language: G (0 swears); Mature Content: G; Violence G

BUYING ADVISORY: MS - OPTIONAL

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE

Penelope March seems like an ordinary girl, living an ordinary life on an iceberg.  Yep, iceberg.  This iceberg has a town with roads, cars, and houses, (though I wondered where the cars came from).  Anyway, ordinary Penelope discovers through an eccentric ice-sculptor named Buzzardstock that her town of Glacier Cove is in grave danger from an ancient evil. Penelope also discovers she may have the unique skills to save her town so they don’t have a meltdown. Literally.   

Read this book with a cup of hot chocolate or a blanket, because Glacier Cove is cold.  Although the premise seems truly weird, Penelope is a likeable character and Glacier Cove is a unique setting that plays well into the storyline.  I liked the story more than I thought I would because it addresses some universal themes of fitting in, family issues, and relationships, though the storyline gets pretty bizarre as it wraps up.  

Michelle in the Middle, Teacher