Anna Staniszewski lives outside of Boston with her husband and an adorably crazy dog. She was named the Boston Public Library's 2006-2007 Writer-in-Residence and a winner of the 2009 PEN New England Discovery Award. When she's not writing, Anna spends her time teaching, reading, and not cleaning her house. Visit her at annastan.com.
The Dirt Diary
eBook
-
ISBN-13:
9781402286377
- Publisher: Sourcebooks, Incorporated
- Publication date: 01/07/2014
- Sold by: Barnes & Noble
- Format: eBook
- Pages: 256
- Sales rank: 373,891
- File size: 1 MB
- Age Range: 10 - 14 Years
Available on NOOK devices and apps
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"I LOVED it...sweet, sensitive, and delicious!"—Erin Dionne, author of Models Don't Eat Chocolate Cookies
WANTED: Maid for the most popular kids in 8th grade.
Cleaning up after the in-crowd gets Rachel all the best dirt.
Rachel can't believe she has to give up her Saturdays to scrubbing other people's toilets. So. Gross. But she kinda, sorta stole $287.22 from her college fund that she's got to pay back ASAP or her mom will ground her for life. Which is even worse than working for her mother's new cleaning business. Maybe. After all, becoming a maid is definitely not going to help her already loserish reputation.
But Rachel picks up more than smell socks on the job. As maid to some of the most popular kids in school, Rachel suddenly has all the dirt on the 8th grade in-crowd. Her formerly boring diary is now filled with juicy secrets. And when her crush offers to pay her to spy on his girlfriend, Rachel has to decide if she's willing to get her hands dirty...
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Confidently addressing a number of common tween troubles that include bullying, parental divorce, and peer pressure, Staniszewski (the My Very UnFairy Tale Life series) introduces a determined eighth-grader desperate to get her separated parents back together in this humorous problem novel. It isn’t the love of bleach and toilet brushes that drives Rachel Lee to help her mother with her weekend cleaning business. Rachel needs money fast to replace the $300 she borrowed from her college-fund account in order to visit her father in Florida and “talk some sense” into him, hoping to persuade him to come home. One unexpected bonus of her new job is gaining access to the homes of some of her classmates. While cleaning up their messes, Rachel discovers a few dirty little secrets—ammunition that could bring her extra cash, win her the notice of the boy of her dreams, and take down her A-lister nemesis. Predictably, Rachel’s schemes cause more pain than gain, but readers will likely forgive her errors in judgment as she sincerely attempts to make amends. Ages 10–14. Agent: Ammi-Joan Paquette, Erin Murphy Literary Agency. (Jan.)
"Staniszewski neatly captures the pain of a shy young girl with newly separated parents . . .The quick pace and creative storyline will attract those in the mood for an undemanding, light read." - Kirkus
"Rachel's situation and feelings ring true . . .This realistic read is likely to appeal to middle schoolers and reluctant readers." " - School Library Journal
"It's laugh-out-loud funny and one of the most fun books I've read all year."
"an inspiring book for anyone who has ever been bullied." - Justine
"Rachel's voice is entirely teen authentic in its self-centeredness . . .there is still heart and humor here, so readers looking for a heroine as flawed as themselves will commiserate with Rachel." - The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
"another appealing series that promises more goofball humor blended with the real issues of early adolescence." - Booklist
"Anna Staniszewski, author, has done a magnificent job of creating a wacky yet serious character, Rachel, an eighth grader whose hokey expressions stick to your brain long after you're done reading the book... [The Dirt Diary] has secrets, heartbreak, romance, and humor-a great mix." - Writing Against the Wind
Gr 5–8—Fourteen-year-old Rachel's parents separated, her father moved to Florida, and she stole from her college fund to pay for a plane ticket to visit him. She hopes to win the hundred dollar award at the Spring Dance bake sale, but as another way to earn back the money she volunteers to help her mother with her new business, cleaning houses. When Rachel realizes that their first client is Briana, the most popular girl in her class and Rachel's enemy, things feel as if they can't get much worse. Writing notes in her diary about "the dirt" she learns about her classmates while cleaning their homes makes her feel better, as do baking and creating new recipes. Despite Briana's weekly creative cleaning tortures, Rachel finds herself developing a relationship with the girl's twin brother, Evan. Her friend Marisol, a fashion whiz, provides much-needed emotional support, but when they have a fight and rumors start flying that could only have come from the diary, she has to figure out how to stand up to Briana and come to terms with some unhappy truths about her family. Although Rachel's situation and feelings ring true, she often comes across as selfish and whiny. Her character is redeemed when she finally faces the truth about her parents, makes amends with Marisol, and finds a way to face Briana. This realistic read is likely to appeal to middle schoolers and reluctant readers.—Kefira Phillipe, Nichols Middle School, Evanston, IL
What could be worse than cleaning other people's toilets on the weekends? Cleaning the toilets of the two most popular girls in eighth grade, that's what. Rachel Lee needs to raise $300 fast, having stolen it from her college fund to buy a ticket to Florida to convince her father to return to the family. In order to pay her fund back before her mother finds out, she enlists as a helper in her mother's new cleaning business. As she gains access to the bedrooms of some key people in her middle school, Rachel makes some decisions that come back to haunt her, escalating the very problems she is trying to solve. After causing untrue rumors to start and accepting money to spy on someone, Rachel finally learns that honest conversations with parents and true friends seem to be the best tonic. And yes, the mean girls are really mean--but Rachel discovers reasons for that as well. Although most of the issues that confront Rachel seem two-dimensional, Staniszewski neatly captures the pain of a shy young girl with newly separated parents. Written in Rachel's voice, the plot is predictable and the language simple. The quick pace and creative storyline will attract those in the mood for an undemanding, light read. (Fiction. 10-14)