Molly & Pim and the Millions of Stars

Gr 3-6--In this Australian import, 10-year-old Molly just wants to be normal. She is jealous of her best friend Ellen's organized parents, clean house, and prepackaged muesli bars from the grocery store. Molly, on the other hand, has a space cadet mother who wanders off into the woods to gather herbs, makes potions, fills the house with odd trinkets, and prepares strange homemade food for Molly's lunch. But as annoying as her mother can be, when she accidentally turns herself into a tree, Molly is devastated--and desperate to get her back. The problem is that she's too embarrassed to tell anyone what has happened, except for Pim, a fellow misfit. When Molly's mean neighbors threaten to chop down her mother's tree, the situation becomes all the more urgent. Ultimately, Molly discovers that love, trust, and friendship matter more than being "normal." Molly and her friends are fully realized characters in a richly developed world. VERDICT Imaginative middle graders will relish this gentle story with a fairy-tale feel. A stellar addition.--Eliza Langhans, Hatfield Public Library, MA

Both down-to-earth and ethereal, Murray's (How to Make a Bird) novel introduces 10-year-old Molly, who lives with her mother in a house that "feel like a Gypsy caravan" inside and has "not one proper corner or straight line." Molly conceals the "not-quite-normal" parts of her life from her practical best friend, Ellen, including her "muddled and dreaming" Mama's preoccupations with herbs, poetry, and other projects. So when Mama concocts a potion intended to grow a tree to block them from their horrid neighbors--but instead turns into a tree herself--Molly hides this turn of events from Ellen. Instead, she confides in Pim, a reclusive boy who believes in the interconnectedness of all living things, revealing that her sentient "Mama tree" rearranges its branches to create a bed for her and bears mysterious fruit to feed her. Murray's gentle, image-rich narrative takes on gripping urgency as Molly and Pim try to protect the tree from her neighbors' chainsaw. Tinged with fantasy, this is a thoughtful exploration of difference, as well as the ties between friends, parents and children, and humans and nature. Ages 8-12. (Jan.)