Only the Lonely From the Files

Madison Finn isn't sure that she can survive the end of the summer, let along the beginning of a new school year. Middle school is a whole new world, and with her parents' divorce and new classmates at school, life is all about changes. Madison uses her laptop and the internet to help her through the trials and tribulations of seventh grade.

Gr 4-6-Fluffy reading loaded with computer messages is the gimmick here for wired girls. Madison Finn is "allergic to change," and this summer her life is fraught with "flux." Instead of hanging out with her best friends, she goes with her mom to Brazil to scout a location for a nature documentary. When they return home, the 12-year-old's pals are in camp and her parents are getting a divorce. Bored, lonely, and filled with angst at the thought of entering seventh grade, she searches chat rooms for new friends only to find one in her neighborhood. (Fortunately, Madison is savvy enough not to exchange intimate information.) Then Egg and Aimee return from camp, and the beginning of seventh grade is not what Madison expected. Her new friend Fiona makes the mistake of connecting with Maddie's archenemies at school. The first in a projected series, this novel has no heavy messages to weigh down a light summer read.

Marilyn Payne Phillips, University City Public Library, MO

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

The chatty debut installment of the From the Files of Madison Finn series introduces a high-strung and contemplative heroine who pronounces herself "allergic" to change. The summer before seventh grade, Madison is still reeling from her parents' divorce a year earlier. With her two best pals, Aimee and Egg, away at camp, she feels bored and lonely not to mention anxious about the impending start of junior high. When she becomes friends with a new girl in her neighborhood, Madison worries about juggling this relationship with her tried-and-true friendships, then agonizes about whether she still has as much in common with Aimee and Egg as before. The novel's title refers to one of the files that Madison keeps on her beloved laptop, on which she records her feelings, fears and fixations. The computer also gives rise to e-mails and chat room dialogue, faithfully recorded here ("evry one is @ a party except 4 me"), which supplement the often long-winded narrative ("Madison went into her super-special computer files. She accessed the files with a specially selected, super-special password which was so super-special that even she forgot it sometimes"). The issues are real enough and credibly handled, so that readers who identify with Madison's angst may well want to reach for the series' second book, Boy, Oh Boy!, due out the same month. Ages 8-12.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Gr. 4-6. This first installment in a new series introduces spunky Madison Finn, a soon-to-be seventh-grader who is suffering through a lonely summer while her two best friends are away at camp. When new girl Fiona moves in around the block, Madison's loneliness is eased, but she soon begins to worry about the way the new friendship will affect her relationship with her two old friends. Madison has a long list of other worries, too: a first kiss, changes in her body, and starting at the big, new junior high. She contemplates her anxieties in The Files of Madison Finn, an online journal she has created on her new orange laptop. It's an effective device for letting the reader in on the innermost thoughts of this typical preteen girl. Although some serious topics are raised, they are handled mostly in a lighthearted way. The last few chapters describe the first hectic days of seventh grade and hint at a romance in Madison's future. With the second book already out and the third "coming soon," readers won't have to wait long to find out how Madison fares in seventh grade. Lauren Peterson
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