Secrets Out!

by Julie Sternberg, Johanna Wright (Illustrator)

Overview

In this second book in the Top-Secret Diary of Celie Valentine series, ten-year-old Celie’s grandmother has moved in with her family, and Granny’s forgetfulness is starting to worry Celie. In the meantime, Celie can tell her parents are keeping secrets, but she can’t talk to her best friend, Lula, or her sister, Jo, because they’re both keeping secrets, too! Why isn’t Lula sharing with Celie? Who is Jo texting all the time? And what is Celie supposed to do when special time with her grandmother becomes much more complicated—and possibly dangerous—than Celie can manage on her own? Once again, Celie turns to her diary as she tries to sort this all out, filling the pages with humorous, heartfelt entries, notes, drawings, and pages from her top-secret spy notebook.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781629798912
Publisher:	Astra Publishing House
Publication date:	12/11/2018
Series:	The Top-Secret Diary of Celie Valentine
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile:	540L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Julie Sternberg is the author of the best-selling Like Pickle Juice on a Cookie and its sequels, Like Bug Juice on a Burger and Like Carrot Juice on a Cupcake. Formerly a public interest lawyer, she is a graduate of the New School’s MFA program in Creative Writing, with a concentration in writing for children. She lives with her family in Brooklyn, New York. Visit juliesternberg.com.

Johanna Wright is the illustrator of Clover Twig and the Magical Cottage, Clover Twig and the Perilous Path, and several picture books, including her own The Secret Circus, Bunnies on Ice, and The Orchestra Pit. She lives with her husband, two young children, and fuzzy cats in Portland, Oregon. Visit johannawright.com.

Editorial Reviews

"Although the issues Celie faces—loss of her best friend, conflicts with her sister, concerns about her cognitively compromised grandmother—are major, the story is in no way heavy... A heartfelt but amusing story about the many challenges of growing up." —Kirkus Reviews

"Ten-year-old Celie continues the ultra-honest (and at times unintentionally funny) journal she began in the first book, Friendship Over!... Celie's voice is fresh, completely unselfconscious, and emphatic... Much of the book's considerable humor, as well as its pathos, is communicated in Celie's sketches, diagrams, and notes—scribbly, heartfelt, and immediate." —The Horn Book

From the Publisher

2015-06-23
Picking up where Friendship Over (2014) ends, this illustrated diary-style slice-of-life novel tells the continuing story of 10-year-old Celie Valentine Altman, centering on the all-important middle school topics of friendship and family.The theme of secrets—finding them, keeping them, and the subtle ethics of these decisions—is a strong choice for Celie's character, as she can't stand not knowing what's going on. She's also willing to break moral boundaries to find out, spying and reading private correspondence. However, when her addled grandmother accidentally sets her sweater on fire, it's Celie who tries to hide this important secret from her parents, as she fears her beloved grandmother will be taken away. On the friendship front, Celie's longtime friend, Lula, has a new friend, Violet, and Celie doesn't understand why Lula is sharing secrets with Violet rather than her. And at home, Celie struggles with her older sister, Jo, interfering with her privacy and insisting that Jo not keep her ice cream date secret from their parents. Although the issues Celie faces—loss of her best friend, conflicts with her sister, concerns about her cognitively compromised grandmother—are major, the story is in no way heavy, as Celie's skewed perspective and the diary's clever illustrations add humor and keep the tone light. A heartfelt but amusing story about the many challenges of growing up. (Fiction. 8-11)

Kirkus Reviews