About This Book

Sixth-grader and bad girl Mikey has parents who are getting a divorce. With the help of best friend and fellow bad girl, Margalo, Mikey devises a plan to save their marriage and prevent the disruption of her own life. Feisty, sneaky Mikey decides to act like a sweet, good girl and gives it her best shot: she cleans her room, goes with her mother to the mall and with her father to play miniature golf, and even accompanies both of them to a marriage counselor. When trying to be the perfect daughter fails, she runs away for a weekend. In the meantime, Mikey and Margalo get to know a new classmate, Gianette, an even-badder bad girl, who claims to be a New Orleans witch-in-training, and turns out to be a thief, a blackmailer, and part of a children's welfare fraud scheme as well.

In this sequel to Bad Girls, award-winning author Cynthia Voigt uses sidesplitting humor and poignant realism to explore friendship and family break-ups. Marital confrontations, as well as peer struggles, are sensitively handled, and readers will identify with the give-and-take between Mikey and Margalo as they desperately hope to avoid being split up as a result of Mikey's parents' divorce. Ultimately, Mikey's parents do separate, but the ending is upbeat, and Mikey and Margalo get to stay together. The girls' funny, on-target reflections of themselves, other people, and life in general will strike chords of familiarity as readers consider their own feelings and opinions about relationships.