Piper Reed Book Review #1

TITLE: Piper Reed, Navy Brat

AUTHOR: Kimberly Willis Holt

COPYRIGHT: 2007

ORIGINAL PUBLISHER: Henry Holt and Company, LLC

NUMBER OF PAGES: 146

PLOTLINE: Nine-year-old Piper Reed doesn’t want to move. She’d rather stay in San Diego with her best friends, the members of the Gypsy Club. But her dad, who is a navy chief, has just been assigned to Pensacola, Florida, which is very far away.

When Piper’s family arrives in Pensacola, there are many problems with the new house. There are only three bedrooms, which means Piper has to share with her little sister, Sam. And there’s no room for a treehouse, because the lawn is so small. And there are vents in the walls, which means that Piper’s older sister Tori can listen in on her conversations . . . but maybe that’s a good thing, because it works the other way around!

Then Piper finally receives what she’s always wanted---a dog! There’s just one snag. She thought they were getting a German shepherd, but this dog is a poodle. And there’s a snag at school, too---she needs to make some new friends, but her efforts aren’t working very well so far. And on top of all that, her dad’s going off on navy duty for six months! Can Piper figure out how to cope with the changes in her life?

This book is very cute, and has illustrations by Christine Davenier that go well with the text. The audiobook of Piper Reed, Navy Brat, which is available from http://www.amazon.com/, is read by the talented Emily Janice Card and is extremely fun to listen to.

*****

“Sometimes when it was too quiet, words floated into my head and before I knew it they’d popped out of my mouth. ‘I’m a vegetarian,’ I announced.

Collin pointed to my hamburger. ‘What’s that then?’

‘Except for hamburgers,’ I said.” - Piper Reed, Navy Brat