Scholastic Booktalk

BAD, BADDER, BADDEST
By Cynthia Voigt
Published by Scholastic, Inc.

Sixth grade was nothing like what Mikey and Margalo had expected, what with Mikey's parents talking about divorce, and Gianette, the new girl in class, who was even badder than they were!

There was no doubt about it. Sixth grade was going to be The Year of the War. Mikey's parents were getting a divorce, and Mikey, with Margalo's help, was determined to stop it.

But it didn't look good. Mrs. Elsinger was certain that a divorce would fix everything, just like she'd been certain that a new job and leaving the city would fix everything when they'd moved to town just a year ago. It didn't fix things then, and Mikey knew a divorce wouldn't fix things now. But could she convince her mother?

Then it occurred to Mikey that maybe she was the reason for the divorce, because she was a bad girl, and didn't ever do things the easy way. Maybe if she changed, and was a good girl, or even a perfect girl, they'd want to stay together. She decided to try. So she made a list of all the things she'd do if she were perfect.

1. Clean up her bedroom
2. Go to the mall with her mother and shop for clothes
3. Learn to cook from Mom
4. Stop telling Mom she's wrong
5. Go to the movies and play miniature golf with Dad
6. Learn tennis from Dad
7. Baby-sit for Mom's friends
8. Talk to Dad about his job
9. Be pitiful

It was the hardest thing Mikey had ever done, and she depended on Margalo's support to make it work. Margalo went to the mall, to the beauty shop, to the movies and to miniature golf. And for a while it seemed like it was working, and things were getting better, until Mikey discovered that the marriage counselor her parents were going to wasn't talking to them about how to stay married, but about how to divide their stuff without fighting too much about it! Perfection hadn't worked. The divorce was still on.

And to make things worse, there was a new girl in their class at school, who was different from everyone else — Gianette was Creole, and didn't have a family. She lived with her grandmother, who was a witch. And when she arrived at a slumber-birthday party, her gift was a straw doll, complete with magic spells that her grandmother had put on it. She looked different, too, almost like a tiny doll who'd been magicked to life, not a real girl at all. But it wasn't until later that the truth came out, and everyone learned that Gianette was the baddest girl of all, so bad she was in a class by herself.

Sixth grade wasn't going to be easy, with Gianette and her magic spells and tarot cards at school, and Mikey's parents fighting at home. What would happen at either place was anyone's guess.

Booktalk by Joni R. Bodart

 

Cynthia Voigt knew she wanted to be a writer from the time she started high school.

ARTICLE

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