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Calli

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

In Calli, prize-winning author Jessica Lee Anderson explores the perils of adolescence with the humor and compassion of a writer who knows growing up doesn't always come with easy answers.

Calli has almost everything she could want in life—two loving moms, a good-looking boyfriend, and a best friend who has always been there for her. As an only child, Calli is excited when her parents announce that they want to foster a girl her own age, but Cherish, her foster sister, is not at all what she expected. Cherish lies, steals, kisses Calli's boyfriend, and seems to get away with just about everything. Determined to get even, Calli takes matters into her own hands, but her plan for revenge goes horribly awry. Isolated from her friends and family, she looks for ways to undo the damage she's caused.

Funny, moving, and emotionally rich, Calli is a portrait of an endearing young woman caught between adolescence and adulthood, striving to do the right thing even when all of her options seem wrong.

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    • Kirkus

      April 15, 2011

      When one of her two moms is diagnosed with lupus and a new foster sister her own age moves in, things become complicated for Calli.

      Life in her Louisiana suburb has been pretty straightforward, with boyfriend Dub lighting up the romance and friend Delia a solid support. All of that goes haywire when new foster sibling Cherish makes a play for Dub, Delia finds a new buddy and Calli finds she is unable to turn to either mom for help. Another foster child is anticipated, and the circumstance, while not overwhelming, begins to really eat at her. Attempts to teach Cherish what it feels like to have her stuff co-opted backfire, and Calli learns the hard way that retribution isn't all it's cracked up to be. On the typical teen-angst scale, this is fairly tepid, though it's serious enough to Calli, whose first-person, present-tense narration wrings emotion at every opportunity. Resolution comes fairly easily, as French homework, weekly family outings at a local buffet and "intervention" shopping trips with Delia and her new pal combine with Calli's admitting her wrong and making an effort to make things right. 

      This story about an average girl who rises to some unusual challenges in steady fashion makes for comfortable middle-of-the-road fare. (Fiction. 12-16)

      (COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

    • School Library Journal

      November 1, 2011

      Gr 7-10-Calli has been the only child of lesbian parents for a long time, so when they take in a foster child, she begins to feel ignored by her two moms. Then she witnesses her foster sister, Cherish, kissing her boyfriend in the school hallway, and that's the start of a meltdown for the 15-year-old. She's tired of being a mousy wallflower and decides to get even with Cherish, which has consequences that spiral out of her control. A sickly mother with lupus and a best friend who doesn't offer Calli the support she wants don't help her case. And what was her boyfriend thinking anyway? There's a lot happening in this short novel. So much so that what could be intriguing plotlines-such as exploring the life of a teenager living with two moms and the fostering experience from the biological child's perspective-are glossed over in short chapters that leave little time for the characters to develop. Calli's life is complicated for sure, maybe a little too complicated to make this story cohesive.-Shawna Sherman, Hayward Public Library, CA

      Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • The Horn Book

      January 1, 2012
      Calli is having trouble getting along with Cherish, the foster child her moms have welcomed into the family home. When an argument between the girls escalates into a physical altercation, Cherish is taken to a juvenile center. Calli feels guilty and wonders if it's too late to clear the air. Though her introspection weighs down the plot, Calli's redemption is rewarding (if not suprising).

      (Copyright 2012 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

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