Always, Abigail

Abigail likes making lists. She makes lists for starting middle school, and high on her list is becoming a pom-pom girl. But when she discovers she is on a different schedule from her BFFs, Alli and Cami, also known as AlliCam, and when she finds out they are spending a LOT of time with two other girls also trying out for pom-poms, she wonders what else could go wrong. The answer is plenty. She has the worst language arts teacher and is assigned to write friendly letters to the one girl in sixth grade nobody likes, Gabby Marco, and Abigail does not get on the pom-pom girls, but is named alternate, and much more.

Nancy J. Cavanaugh has turned a collection of lists, notes, signs, and letters written in the pitch-perfect voice of a sixth-grade girl into a terrific story. There are times when Abigail is very hard to like, and perhaps part of the compulsion to continue reading, and there is such a compulsion, is to see this selfish girl get her comeuppance. But there is so much more to this story. The characters are real. The problems are something everyone can relate to. The story is most satisfying.