Destiny Awaits You In This Middle Grade Book That Jackie Is Recommending

Eleven-year-old Emily Elizabeth Davis has been told for her entire life that her destiny is to become a poet, just like her famous namesake, Emily Dickinson. But Emily doesn't even really like poetry, and she has a secret career ambition that she suspects her English-professor mother will frown on. Then, just after discovering that it contains an important family secret, she loses the special volume of Emily Dickinson's poetry that was given to her at birth. As Emily and her friends search for the lost book in used bookstores and thrift shops all across town, Emily's understanding of destiny begins to unravel and then rewrite itself in a marvelous new way.

In her third novel, Kathryn Fitzmaurice again weaves a richly textured story about unexpected connections, about the stories that shape our lives, and about the most perfect kinds of happy endings: those that happen just on time.

 Jackie says:
"Emily has been growing up under some major expectations--her mother, a poet, has decided that it is Emily is going to be a great poet (she came upon this when a first edition of  Emily Dickinson poetry turned up in her hands on the day her daughter was born--which is also how Emily got her name).  However, Emily really doesn't like poetry.  She'd rather be a romance writer--she wants happy endings for everything and everyone.  She also wants to find her father (it's been just her and her mom for her whole life).  She finally gets her mother to confess that she has written Emily's father's name in that Dickinson book--which has been accidentally given away to charity.   With the help of a couple of friends, Emily begins to search the city to find that book that will lead her to her father. 

This is a delightful middle grades read that truly reminded me of Judy Blume.  There's a lot going on for both girls and boys (the friend's little brother is hilarious), and should make a great read for anyone 9-12.  Or a big kid like me!"