I would never have picked this up ordinarily, but I was stuck with nothing to read and this was the only thing within reach.
Anyway, it was actually very sweet and had lots of awesome things like a cow raising a baby deer, and a girl who thinks she's a horse, and another teenage girl who loves her body (I know! crazy!) and the best knitting circle of all time. ( )

Arrived from Candlewick today, picked it up and got sucked in right off the bat. I had at least a dozen things I *should* have been doing at my desk, but that's what's great about being a media specialist. If I'm reading at my desk, I'm also doing part of my job! Review coming shortly...Mary Harold has absolutely had it. Living in Virginia with her mother, she has panic attacks at school and gets bullied frequently. Mary decides she will never, ever be called "the grossest girl" ever again, and she tells her mother that she wants to move to Alabama to live with her grandma Ayma. When her mother refuses, Mary takes the old truck and a bag with a few things, and drives herself almost 700 miles to Wren Mountain, Alabama. At the cattle ranch, Ayma is waiting with open arms. Mary's mother gives in, but with some conditions: the most important being that Mary must have a cow of her own to care for, in order to learn responsibility. The ranch manager, Bud, takes Mary to buy the animal the next day, and she starts working with Bud and the cattle. Bud has two children, Delta and Dixie. Delta is the most obnoxious annoying little boy on the planet, and there's a lot wrong with Dixie. She communicates through horse noises instead of speaking words -- she's been like this ever since her mother abandoned the family. Spending time with Dixie is good for Mary, and also good for Dixie. As the summer ends, and the girls go back to school, Dixie returns to the usual torture of bullying for her strange behaviors, but Mary uses her newfound strength and confidence to stand up for Dixie. Making the right choices is difficult, and standing up for damaged Dixie puts Mary squarely in the bullies' target zone, which is where she swore she would never be again. Mary is angry - hiding doesn't work, fighting doesn't work... what will? Realistic fiction about accepting yourself and the differences in others, with a delightful cast of oddball characters in the little town of Wren. 7th grade and up. ( )

I would whole-heartedly recommend the book "A Certain Strain of Peculiar", by Gigi Amateau. It is especially suited for preteen and younger teenaged girls. However, I am an adult in my mid-thirties and I still enjoyed it. It is a coming-of-age story, but doesn't necessarily come off that way. What I mean by that is the author creates an interesting enough story that it doesn't fit into the cliché coming-of-age genre.

The story is about a 13-year old girl, Mary, who has been mercilessly teased and taunted at school. She has dealt with this peer abuse by withdrawing into herself and suffers from panic attacks. It is a realistic look at how cruel kids can be. As the school year ends, she tries to convince her mom to move back to her mom's home town to live with her Ayma (grandmother). When her mother refuses to consider it, Mary takes matters into her own hands and runs away.

The summer she spends with her Ayma is a summer of healing. Not everything that happens is good, but Mary is able to reinvent herself, without the stigma of her past. It is a novel about that self-discovery. I especially enjoyed the book because it was not always predictable. I am glad that I took the time to read this book and suggest for the teenaged girl as well as some adults. ( )

Great coming of age novel. Mary suffers from panick attacks and the insane amount of bullying that goes on at school and chooses to start over in her birth town with her grandmother. There she finds another girl with problems of her own and they soon become best friends. I've witnessed the kind of bullying that goes on in this book and it is great for kids to realize other kinds have lived through bullying and they will too. ( )

Mary Harold takes refuge at her Ayma's after bad bullying at school drives her away from home. In a new place, she learns to fit into her own skin. Not very groundbreaking or exciting, but for those girls that feel drastically out of place, it would be a comfort to know that you don't have to make yourself into a round peg to get through life. For some reason, though, I kept feeling as if this book was going in a different direction than it really did. ( )