New Girl in Town: Piper Reed, Navy Brat by Kimberly Willis Holt

In Piper Reed: Navy Brat (Piper Reed) author Kimberly Willis Holt introduces us to a plucky new girl character. Holt, whose soulful novels for middle readers have included the noted My Louisiana Sky and the National Book Award winner When Zachary Beaver Came to Town, draws upon her own childhood as a "Navy brat" to create a memorable protagonist for beginning chapter readers.

The narrator, Piper Reed, is the middle daughter in a much-travelled military family. As the story begins, the Reed girls, fourth-grader Piper, early teen Tori, and super-bright Kindergartner Sam, are informed by their father that they are being relocated to, as Sam puts it, "Pepsi-Cola, Florida."

"I don't want to move," said Tori.

"Sorry," said Chief. "That's the Navy life."

Tori folded her arms across her chest. "Well, when I grow up, I'm not going to marry anyone in the Navy or Army or Air Force."

"How about the Marines," I reminded her.

"Or the Marines."

"Don't worry," I told her. "No one will probably want to marry you anyway."

Tori burst into tears and ran out of the kitchen. A second later her bedroom door slammed.

Mom shook her head. "Piper Reed."

"I didn't say she was fat!"

Leaving behind their big two-story house in San Diego with her own room, her big tree house, and her Gypsy Club friends (who share her favorite saying, "Get off the bus!") is hard for Piper, too. She worries about making friends at her new school in Pensacola, especially when the kids find out that she is dyslexic and goes to a "special" class. In their new cramped condo it's no better; Piper has to share a bedroom with her little sister, and since there's only one bathroom for all five of them, Chief has to make out a weekly bathroom rotation chart.

A short visit to her Louisiana relatives en route softens the transition, and when the family is settled, Mom and Chief allow the girls to get their first dog, whom Piper names Bruna when she learns that her first choice, Bruno, won't work for a girl puppy. Cheered up by their new pet and the discovery that she can eavesdrop on Tori through the air vent between their rooms, Piper starts out the first day at her new school passing out invitations to join her New Gypsy Club.

Without the appeal of a secret tree house meeting place, though, Piper has to come up with an alternative attraction--fortune-telling by a "real" gypsy. Unfortunately, the only member of her family she can get to play the gypsy is her five-year-old sister Sam, dressed in a mustard-colored scarf and doing her "readings" with the aid of her mom's pink bowling ball with the finger holes turned downward. Piper's three guests are not impressed by her crystal ball or Sam's performance and are about to leave when "sister magic" saves the day. Having overheard the fortune-telling fiasco through the vent, Tori enters, stylishly costumed as a tall and mysterious gypsy whose fortune-telling impresses the skeptical guests, and the New Gypsy Club is launched.

Things are looking up when Piper finds that her young and fun "special reading" teacher makes her the envy of her classmates. Then, when the group goes on a field trip to watch the Blue Angels rehearse their aerial acrobatics, Piper is amazed to learn that Lt. Captain Elizabeth Franklin is a member of the team and decides that she, Piper Reed, is going to become a Navy Blue Angel pilot herself. As her father leaves for his next six-month deployment, Piper is able to come up with a list of eight things she likes about living in "Pepsi-Cola," including

#8. I have now spread "Get off the bus" to another state. There are only 48 more to go!

And since more sequels are already in the works, it looks as if Piper Reed will be spreading "Get off the bus" to quite a few more states--and to quite a few beginning chapter readers as well.