Brett McCarthy
Work In Progress
By Maria Padian
(Knopf Books for Young Readers, Hardcover, 9780375846755, 288pp.)
Publication Date: March 11, 2008
Other Editions of This Title: Google eBook, Library Binding, Paperback
Categories: Humorous Stories, Social Issues - Adolescence
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Brett McCarthy lives for soccer, vocabulary words, and her largerthan-life grandmother, Nonna. Unfortunately, Brett’s got a huge mouth she can’t seem to tame and opinions she can’t keep to herself. It’s thanks in part to both of those things (well, really, the evil Jeanne Anne) that Brett finds herself going from good student and BFF to Diane, to twicesuspended, friendless, and lunching with the principal every day. Indefinitely. So when Nonna starts going for lots of medical tests and no one will tell her why, Brett’s already turned-upside down world goes from bad to worse, and she’s not sure where she fits, who she is, or how to make right what she, and her big fat mouth, have made wrong. Maria Padian makes her literary debut with a laugh-out-loud coming-of-age novel about one smart-mouthed 14-year-old who’s learning the hard way that she is a work in progress.
Maria Padian has worked as a news reporter, an essayist for public radio, a press secretary for a U.S. congressman, and a freelance writer. An avid tennis player, gardener, skier, and hiker, she is also the mother of two teenagers, who provide countless inspirations and insights for her writing. A graduate of Middlebury College and the University of Virginia, she has also attended Oxford University and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. She lives with her children, her husband, and their Australian shepherd in Maine, where she is at work on a new novel. To learn more about her, visit www.mariapadian.com.
Starred Review, Publishers Weekly, March 3, 2008:
"Forceful and heartwarming, this coming-of-age story examines what happens when old friends are outgrown and loved ones are no longer there to lean on."
Review, Parade, June 22, 2008:
"[A] hilarious coming-of-age story."
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