The slightly true story of Cedar B. Hartley, who planned to live an unusual life

A 1001 CBYMRBYGU.

What's the most difficult part of life when you are a teen or a near-teen? One of the toughest parts has to be trying to figure out how much to blend and how much to be yourself at the same time that the world is telling you to blend, blend, blend. Cedar doesn't really do blending.

What Cedar does do is people. Cedar has a green thumb for people. One of her friends tells her this, to Cedar's delight. And thank goodness for that green thumb when your father has died mysteriously and your seventeen-year-old brother is accused of stealing and has run away and your mom is working two jobs and your new best friend Kite has circus parents who've split and your Yugoslavian neighbor has a dog who needs a $500 operation.

I can't possibly tell you how good this book is unless I give you a little sample. Here's a bit from where Cedar goes to Kite's house for the first time:

“I met his dad. They lived in a small house with a long hall and windows on only one side. So it was dark and smelled like wet socks and bathmats. The other side was joined to another house that looked almost the same. It wasn't as messy as you might think a house without a mother in it might be, but it wasn't swept and stainless and steely, like the Bartons', and there were no good cooking smells like at Caramella's. Also, there weren't any pictures on the walls or things on shelves, like at our house. It was house without things. At least without little things. For me, since I'm a major snoop, it was a bit like opening a photo album and finding it empty.”

I wanted to show you some of the little pictures Cedar draws in the book, but I couldn't find any online, so I had to take my own, very bad photo of some:



Do you see how good this book is? If you don't yet, you need to get it and read it and then you will see for yourself.