An Amazon Best Book of the Month: July 2014An Amazon Editors’ Pick for Middle Grade Summer Reading “A scrumptious gem of a story!”—Jennifer A. Nielsen, New York Times bestselling author of The False Prince Meet Gladys Gatsby: New York’s toughest restaurant critic. (Just don’t tell anyone that she’s in sixth grade.) Gladys Gatsby has been cooking gourmet dishes since the age of seven, only her fast-food-loving parents have no idea! Now she’s eleven, and after a crème brûlée accident (just a small fire), Gladys is cut off from the kitchen (and her allowance). She’s devastated but soon finds just the right opportunity to pay her parents back when she’s mistakenly contacted to write a restaurant review for one of the largest newspapers in the world. But in order to meet her deadline and keep her dream job, Gladys must cook her way into the heart of her sixth-grade archenemy and sneak into New York City—all while keeping her identity a secret! Easy as pie, right?

Product Description: The hero of Cataneo's intensely moving novel is thirteen-year-old Nicky Martini, who lives in an apartment complex known as "Eggplant Alley" in the Bronx in 1970 and struggles to cope with a changing family, a changing neighborhood, and a changing world...read more

Traces the life of Mary, who was raised by an aunt and by her mother and stepfather after her father died in World War I, but never felt part of a family until she had her own children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.