Carrie's Crowd

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

Carrie is one kid who knows what it is like to be both “in” and
“out.” She was once “out” because she wore kiddy clothes and
hung around with nerdy people like her bookish friend Laura. Then Carrie
was “in” because she started wearing teen clothes and was friends
with Giselle and Kirsten, two girls who “had a way of making every
girl at school feel like a fool.” But suddenly, Carrie is “out”
again. Giselle and Kirsten are mad at her, everyone at school is
laughing and talking about her; Carrie feels worse now than when she was
just a nerd.

In this fine chapter book, award-winning author Lesley Choyce examines
the sometimes horrific life of a “tween,” a youngster who is no
longer a child but not quite a teen. Young Carrie is caught in a vise
between negative peer pressure and her own self-esteem and only some
hard-earned experience will help her figure out who her real friends
are. Mark Thurman’s comical illustrations add their own humorous
touch. Highly recommended.