MOVING DAY Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls, Book 1

Nine-year-old Allie Finkle loves rules. She writes rules like "never eat anything red" and "don't stick a spatula down your best friend's throat" in her "Rules for Girls" notebook. But when she loses her whiny best friend and then finds out her family is moving, all the rules change. Fear of the unknown and frustration with cliquey friends are just two of Allie's concerns. Tara Sands's high-pitched reading borders on the singsong, but she does well at portraying a youngster who is trying to understand change and formulate new rules. Sands is careful to harvest the emotions and humor that lie below the protagonist's sarcastic comments. S.W. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine [Published: AUGUST 2008]