A girl who resists the inevitable move her family plans to make also refuses to say good-bye, but she comes up with a palatable alternative.
"Posy Peyton doesn't want to move," Liz Garton Scanlon's (All the World) book begins. "She doesn't want to pack her books or take down her bird feeder or undecorated her secret clubhouse." But what she really does not want to do is say good-bye. Posy's friend Megan shares her mother's advice: "We should enjoy the time we have." Posy's other friend Mae delivers her mother's words of wisdom: "We should count our lucky stars we're such good friends." The girls make a pyramid and help Posy take down the pictures in the clubhouse, but the colors of Kady MacDonald Denton's palette stick to drab olive, mustard and burnt orange. When the industrious friends decide to make a pie--"hot, sweet, good pie," as Mae puts it--Posy gets an idea. Vibrant red, gold and deep blue enter the illustrations as the friends help Posy carry out her plan. They light up with smiles and get an infusion of energy: they make a list, a clever, rhyming invitation goes out, and the pages cascade with color as friends, lawn chairs and energy enter the scene.
The gathering does not change the outcome for Posy--she and her family must still move--but she and Mae and Megan find a way to make peace with the situation and to honor their friendship. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness