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I loved this book! I think I fell in love with it the first time the main character, Lee, mentions Anne of Green Gables and her excitement about meeting a “real-life orphan,” Cassandra, who is moving in with a relative next door. Anne was my favorite character from children’s books when I was a kid. She felt like a real person to me – a friend, someone I wanted to meet, someone I wanted to be like, someone I was – dare I say it? – jealous of – exactly the way Lee feels. But being an orphan in real life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, as Lee finds out when she becomes friends with Cassandra.

I loved this book! I think I fell in love with it the first time the main character, Lee, mentions Anne of Green Gables and her excitement about meeting a “real-life orphan,” Cassandra, who is moving in with a relative next door. Anne was my favorite character from children’s books when I was a kid. She felt like a real person to me – a friend, someone I wanted to meet, someone I wanted to be like, someone I was – dare I say it? – jealous of – exactly the way Lee feels. But being an orphan in real life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, as Lee finds out when she becomes friends with Cassandra.

Lee struggles with all the normal childhood problems – a former best friend who hates her now, a bully down the street, a mother with a harsh and critical tongue. Precocious and smart, a chatterbox, misunderstood by a lot of the adults in her life except a beloved teacher, Lee’s a completely loveable character. And she has very few problems which she doesn’t cope with in her own special way. But soon she learns that the worst problem of all is one only Cassandra can help her navigate – the problem of not belonging to anybody or anywhere. A fun and engaging read from start to finish.