Courage for Beginners, by Karen Harrington
Realistic fiction
First line: “I don’t know much, but I do know people stop to look at unusual things.”
Booktalk: Sixth grade was bad enough, but Mysti Murphy had plans for seventh grade. She was going to turn things around at school. Her mom was going to leave the house for the first time in seven years. And she was going to stop pretending that she was actually a character in a book.
Of course, things in Mysti’s life never go as planned.
Right before the first day of seventh grade, her best (and only) friend Anibal calls her to tell her not to talk to him in front of people, because he is going to reinvent himself as a hipster – and hipsters aren’t friends with weirdos like Mysti. Without him, she’ll have to navigate the middle school cafeteria all by herself.
Then her dad falls out of the tree that Mysti’s mom always warned them about – and he ends up in the hospital, in a coma. Now, Mysti is responsible for taking care of her mom and little sister, because her mom still won’t go anywhere – not even to buy groceries or visit Mysti’s dad in the hospital.
If Mysti were a character in one of her favorite books, she’d know exactly how to deal with all these problems. Instead, she’ll have to figure it all out on her own.
Similar titles: Bounce (Natasha Friend), How to Rock Braces and Glasses (Meg Haston)