Tamara Ann Simpson is one tough kid, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have feelings too. She is devastated when her best friend Kebsie, a neighborhood foster child, suddenly moves away. Tamara becomes so wrapped up in her own loneliness that she makes life for the new foster kid a real nightmare. She ironically nicknames the scrawny newcomer Muscle Man McGinty when he comes to take Kebsie’s place at the foster home next door. His outlandish lies and incessant strutting drive Tamara to distraction as she watches him win over the affection of all the kids and adults in the neighborhood. Who would ever believe that he was actually training for the Olympics or that he was a former Broadway star!? The lie that really sends Tamara over the edge is when he says that Neil Armstrong is his uncle. No matter how hard she tries to put him in his place, Muscle Man always takes abuse with impossibly good humor. The story progresses to reveal much more going on than a classic case of bully versus wimp.
Behind all the hurt and the humor of the text lie a lot of lessons for readers. This book is a historical fiction set around the first moon landing and the Vietnam War. Readers get to see the effects of the war from the point of view of a kid alive at the time. There’s no history lesson hidden here, you can just see the sorrow of a neighborhood mourning the loss of beloved young son, drafted and killed in the war. Readers also get a lesson in compassion as they see the hidden tragedy in Muscle Man’s past and the indifference between Tamara and her parents. It’s unusual for a kid’s book to be written from the point of view of a bully that is so filled with humor, compassion, and depth. This book manages to make readers sympathize with the Tamara and Muscle Man as the story reveals their hidden pain and insecurities. This is a humorous, educational, and touching book about understanding and redemption. I would recommend this for readers who enjoyed books like The Mostly True Adventures of Home P. Figg by Rodman Philbrick, The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson, or Blubber by Judy Blume. This is a really great book for understanding the motives of a young bully.
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Miss Mollie
Frontier Magic Book 1: The Thirteenth Child by Patricia C. Wrede 18-year-old Eff must finally get over believing she is bad luck & accept that her special training in Aphrikan magic, & being the twin of the seventh son of a seventh son, give her extraordinary power to combat magical creatures that threaten settlements on the western frontier. 
Gringolandia by Lyn Miller-Lachmann In 1986, when 17-year-old Daniel's father arrives in Madison, Wisconsin, after five years of torture as a political prisoner in Chile, Daniel & his 18-year-old "gringa" girlfriend, Courtney, use different methods to help this bitter, self-destructive stranger who yearns to return home & continue his work. 
Jack Tumor by Anthony McGowan 14-year-old Hector, suffering from severe headaches, is diagnosed with a brain tumor which speaks in his head, calling itself Jack Tumor & making an effort to improve Hector's home life, increase his popularity, & win him a girlfriend before the operation that will mean the end of one or both of them. 
The Joy of Spooking Book 1: Fiendish Deeds by P.J. Bracegirdle As 11-year-old Joy Wells, proud resident of the nearly-abandoned town of Spooking, tries to stop construction of a water park in a bog she believes is home to a monster & the setting of her favorite horror story, a man with his own mysterious connection to Spooking will do anything to stop her. 
Just One Wish by Janette Rallison 17-year-old Annika tries to cheer up her little brother Jeremy before his surgery to remove a cancerous tumor by bringing home his favorite television actor, Steve Raleigh, the star of "Teen Robin Hood." 
If you like fantasy, try Truly, Madly Viking by Sandra Hill, which features a time-traveling Viking. Or Thoroughly Kissed by Kristine Grayson, a modern variant of the Sleeping Beauty story. Finding Mr. Right by Emily Carmichael, is about a vet & a photographer/dog rescuer who meet over a stray dog who is the reincarnation of a woman with a big debt to repay. In Patricia Gaffney's Outlaw in Paradise, a lovely saloon-keeper falls in love with a gunslinger. At least, she thinks he's a gunslinger. Isn't he?
The heroic exploits of Whip Montana, in Geralyn Dawson's The Kissing Stars, have made him a folk hero among the people of west Texas, but to Tess Cameron he is no hero at all, he's the husband who walked out on her twelve long years ago. Mason St. Clair in Elizabeth Boyle's No Marriage of Convenience needs to marry a fortune, & quickly -- however, he falls in love with an actress who's definitely in debt. In Victoria Alexander's The Husband List, it is Lady Gillian Marley who must marry & within two months, or else she forfeits her inheritance. So she proposes to Richard, Lord Shelbrooke -- but finds he wants more than a marriage of convenience. In Susan Andersen's contemporary romance, All Shook Up, JD Carver comes into an unexpected inheritance -- part of a resort lodge in the state of Washington. He also falls in love with his new co-owner. Lady Sophia Howard, in Jill Barnett's Wicked, has lots of money for her dowry, but this medieval heroine wants Sir Tobin, the knight she's betrothed to, to love her for herself, not just her money.
