The Rules for Disappearing

Elston, Ashley. The Rules for Disappearing.
14 May 2013, Disney-Hyperion
E ARC from Netgalley.com

"Meg" has been moved with her family in the Witness Protection Program to six different places in under a year. Her father is behind it, but Meg (her latest name) has no idea what. Her mother, unable to deal with the situation, has descended into alcoholism, and her former CPA father is just trying to make ends meet working in a warehouse job. Her sister, Teeny, is becoming more withdrawn and uncommunicative. Meg misses her former life, with nice clothes, lots of friends, and not looking over her shoulder all the time. When she starts school, she knows that she will not be there long, but is attracted to Ethan, who is kind to her and whose aunt hires her to work in her pizza shop. Some details about the precipitating event start to emerge, and Meg starts to believe that she must do something, or her family will be in the protection program forever, and Ethan is around to help her.
Strengths: Don't want to give too much away. This was a good mystery, and the details of being on the run should appeal to students. It feels like there may be a sequel, which would be great.
Weaknesses: A few generic vulgarities, and an incident of drinking, but nothing to make this inappropriate. I did find that it strained credulity that Ethan was able to find a mention on the internet of one of Meg's other identities, but it wasn't a huge part of the plot.


Just in case no one has noticed, the earth has hurtled away from the sun and it will never again be warm.So I think we need some pictures of puppies to get us through the day. The pictures are from Cutestpaw.com.

Bundle up. Spring might come. There's been a weird yellowish light in the sky recently, but only for brief moments.