Published by Harry N. Abrams

Summary: Vanessa is mourning the loss of her friendship with former weightier friend Bailey when she discovers an x-rated museum near her house. She decides to create an walkout well-nigh Bailey to try to discover what went wrong between the two of them. Although Vanessa tries to alimony her museum a secret, surpassing long her older brother and a few of her friends discover it and want to set up their own exhibits. The group begins to yoke as they create a map, ticket fees, and a security system, and start inviting other kids to see their museum. The most popular item on exhibit is a mysterious painting Vanessa found in a when room of the museum. Through some detective work, she sooner tracks lanugo the artist, a move that ends up exposing the museum to adults. This ways the end of the museum as Vanessa has known it, but moreover an interesting new beginning. Surpassing long, other kids are creating their own museums all over town, including Bailey, who shows Vanessa her own take on their friendship that leads to the beginnings of a reconciliation. 304 pages; grades 4-7.

Pros: Whew! I didn’t plane touch on Vanessa’s trichotillomania, a disorder she discovers she has near the end of the story, or her active-duty military father with whom she has a complicated relationship. There are a lot of issues explored, but Leila Sales does it with grace and plenty of humor, creating an imperfect but lovable protagonist in Vanessa and probe into a myriad of topics that will resonate with middle grade readers.

Cons: Vanessa’s disorder takes the form of picking at her skin, expressly her cuticles, which kind of made me cringe every time I read well-nigh it.