Falling into Place

All the good things in Margaret's world are collapsing, one by one, like a row of dominoes. First her dad remarried--plink. Then her grandfather died--plinkplink. Then her grandmother had to sell the house and move into a retirement community--plinkplinkplink. Now Dad's new wife is having a baby, and Margaret is going to visit Gran at Carol Woods. There she learns that Gran is having an even harder time adjusting to change than Margaret herself. Determined to cheer Gran up, Margaret and her younger cousin, Roy, set out to find her some new friends. Their quest leads them to some of Carolwoods' most colorful characters, and ultimately helps Margaret to ease both Gran's pain and her own. Stephanie Greene, the author of the popular Owen Foote books, introduces an appealing and bold new heroine in this funny novel that handles its serious themes with a light touch

All the good things in Margaret’s world are collapsing, one by one, like a row of dominoes. First her dad remarried—plink. Then her grandfather died—plinkplink. Then her grandmother had to sell the house and move into a retirement community—plinkplinkplink. Now Dad’s new wife is having a baby, and Margaret is going to visit Gran at Carol Woods. There she learns that Gran is having an even harder time adjusting to change than Margaret herself.

Determined to cheer Gran up, Margaret and her younger cousin, Roy, set out to find her some new friends. Their quest leads them to some of Carolwoods’ most colorful characters, and ultimately helps Margaret to ease both Gran’s pain and her own. Stephanie Greene, the author of the popular Owen Foote books, introduces an appealing and bold new heroine in this funny novel that handles its serious themes with a light touch.

Stephanie Greene is the author of six books about Owen Foote, as well as Falling into Place and Show and Tell. She lives with her family in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Emily Leising - Children's Literature

Margaret Mack's life is like dominoes slowly falling down. The eleven-year-old suffers a series of life-changing events: her father remarries, she inherits three stepsisters, a new baby is on the way, and her special grandfather dies. Margaret feels her once-happy life vanishing, one memory at a time. She then goes to visit her grandmother and discovers that her beloved grandmother is no longer the energetic and loving person she once was. To make matters worse, Margaret must deal with her nerdy, whining cousin Roy who is also visiting Gran. In this good family story, everything eventually works out well. The book would be a good one for parents and children to discuss feelings and reactions to inevitable life events. Greene uses some fairly sophisticated vocabulary, and Margaret and Roy call one another rude names that may not be appropriate for a younger child. 2002, Clarion Books/Houghton Mifflin Co, Ages 7 to 12.

As eleven-year-old Margaret struggles to find a way of coping with the hassles of a new stepfamily, she learns that her grandmother is facing similar concerns after moving to a retirement community and becoming a widow