Mary Amato

When she discovers that her father is involved in a long-distance relationship with a zookeeper in another state, jealous and overprotective Frankie decides to send emails to her to sabotage the relationship, but the responses she gets suddenly make Frankie realize that her father's friend is more kind and special than she had ever imagined her to be.

The Naked Mole-rat Letters

Sarah Sammis

I heard about The Naked Mole-Rat Letters by Mary Amato on the Green Bean Teen Queen blog. I tend to like the same sorts of books that she reviews so I added the book to my wishlist based on her positive review.

Frankie, the oldest child of three isn't happy with how her life is going. Her widowed father has started up a friendship with a zookeeper who specializes in naked mole-rats and she hasn't gotten the lead in the school play. This book through letters and diary entries describes how Frankie falls apart when she doesn't get her way.

I normally love these stories told in diary from but sometimes I just can't connect with a character. Frankie is one of those characters. Although she's self described as a straight A student and all around great kid, she never demonstrates these attributes. Instead, she sneaks behind her father's back, lies to her father and his new friend, ditches class and in a fit of pique destroys a library book.

After the library book incident I skipped to the end and she's still obsessing about the same things at the end. Having seen no clear sign of progress or character growth, I decided to pass on finishing the middle of the book.

The Naked Mole-rat Letters

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