Rules for Life

Deborah Dowson is a Canadian children’s librarian living in Powell,
Ohio.

Sixteen-year-old Izzy can’t understand why her father wants to get
married again. He says he wants them to be a “real family,” and she
argues that they already are a real family. Since her mom died, Izzy and
her dad have been very close and have shared everything. Now she feels
she is being replaced by someone she doesn’t even know. Furthermore,
the new wife is pregnant, and her brother has started doing drugs again.
Izzy deals with these changes by seeking the comfort of her boyfriend
and of her friends at the senior centre where she is doing a school
project. She also looks to her mother’s “Rules for Life” for
guidance, but in the end she discovers that “maybe sometimes there
[aren’t] rules for everything, maybe sometimes you [have] to wing
it.”

The catchy opening sentence suggests that the heroine will be an
honest, direct, and fearless narrator. The story is successful because
Izzy is such a sympathetic character. She is smart and funny, with an
edge of anger and cynicism, but she is also sweet and caring and trying
hard to do her best. Her astute observations of those around her are
often humorous, and the reader empathizes with her struggle to adapt to
her changing world. The plot steadily builds to a dramatic crisis and a
satisfying conclusion. This modern family drama will appeal to teenage
girls. Recommended.