If You Only Knew
Written by Rachel Vail
Reviewed by Stacy Q. (age 11)
Zoe Grandon is the youngest of five sisters and nothing seems to belong to her. She is friends with everybody at school, but never has had one best friend. Her father is a chef, and Collete, one of Zoe's many sisters, disagrees with his every move. When seventh grade is just around the corner, Zoe becomes more observant and opens up to the world. She notices unusual things that she never noticed before, like how cute the Levit boys are and that she now really wants to be best friends with CJ Hurley. When CJ's best friend Morgan lies to her, she and Zoe become best friends and they share many hard times and fun times together. After seventh grade, Zoe's life finally starts falling into place.
I loved this whole book. It was short and simple about someone's friendships and problems. Since I loved this whole book, I really don't have a favorite part because it was all good. One of the characters I really enjoyed was CJ Hurley because of her personality. I like her way of showing friendship and how she understands problems. What I think was so unique about this book is how the writer can set up the scenes and described every little detail. I loved it!
I would recommend this book to fifth graders and under. I would also recommend it to people who like real life books and to people who enjoy short books about a fictional character's life. I support this book because it was a fun book to read and it kept me interested.