First my own leftovers. The winners of my holiday giveaway.

A copy of FRAMED! and ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SCIENCE goes to Rosi Hollinbeck. You can see Rosi’s reviews along with some helpful writing links at THE WRITE STUFF.

A copy of RISE OF THE LIONESS and ARABIAN KNIGHTS goes to Danielle Hammelef.

Congratulations. I’ll send your holiday gifts out this week.

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I’m filling the final month of 2016 with reviews from the Cybil’s MG Fiction list. I’ll have two per week beginning with this one.

I’ve known many kids in the same predicament as the main character in THE THING ABOUT LEFTOVERS. First comes the divorce, then one or both parents eventually remarry, leaving the child with stepparents. Some kids adjust well, but those that don’t will find comfort in reading about Fizzy Russo, who feels like a leftover. She has two homes now and neither seem like home. Her step mom and step dad are strangers Fizzy doesn’t like.

With weekends at her dad’s house and the rest of the time at Moms, Fizzy takes heart in a cooking competition she has entered. She hopes maybe by winning, her leftover status might change. Some day having her own cooking show on TV would also help.

I think I gained a few pounds just reading about  Fizzy’s culinary masterpieces. There are touches of humor, more than enough whining, but in the end you are happy to have gotten to know Fizzy Russo.

PUBLICATION DATE: 2016   PAGE COUNT: 240

FULL PLOT (From AMAZON) Fizzy is a good Southern girl who just wants to be perfect. And win the Southern Living cook-off. The being perfect part is hard though, since her parents’ divorced and everything in her life has changed. Wary of her too-perfect stepmom and her mom’s neat-freak, dismissive boyfriend, she’s often angry or upset and feels like a guest in both homes. She tells herself to face facts: She’s a “leftover” kid from a marriage that her parents want to forget. But she has to keep all of that to herself, because a good Southern girl never yells, or throws fits, or says anything that might hurt other people’s feelings—instead she throws her shoulders back, says yes ma’am, and tries to do better. So Fizzy tries her best, but it’s hard to stay quiet when her family keeps getting more complicated. Fortunately, the Southern Living cook-off gives her a welcome distraction, as do her new friends Miyoko and Zach, who have parent issues of their own.

FIVE THINGS TO LIKE ABOUT: THE THING ABOUT LEFTOVERS by C.C. Payne

1. Fizzy’s new friends are the rocks that keep her going. Everyone should be so lucky to have a Zach and Miyoko in their lives. Two great supporting characters.
2. Just a thing with me–I love short chapters–those you can read out loud or to yourself in less than 8 minutes. Here we have 39 well crafted ones to keep you reading.
3. Fizzy learns that sometimes the tough teacher is just trying to make her better.
4. Fizzy’s positive and negatives list about her step parents are spot on as to how a young girl would feel. Here’s one: Gave me a hateful alarm clock for my birthday–which I’m pretty sure he received as a free gift with his Sports Illustrated subscription.
5. By reading the two pages where Fizzy describes her A.D. Rules (After Divorce), young readers going through the same predicament will know they are not alone.

FAVORITE LINES:  I don’t do ruffles, bows, flowers. or sequins–I am against the cruel treatment of clothes by way of bedazzling. I have flannel shirts for winter, T-shirts for summer, and long-sleeved T-shirts and baseball-type shirts for everything in between–I don’t devote a lot of thought to clothes because I like to think I have more important things to think about. Even so, I wouldn’t mind some designer jeans; only Mom won’t buy them, which probably explains a lot about my situation here in the valley–I don’t have the right stuff, literally or figuratively.

WORDS OF WISDOM FROM AUTHOR, C.C. PAYNE: Perseverance and discipline are the only tricks I know. I’m not an extraordinary person. I’m not even an extraordinary writer. I’m just an ordinary person who perseveres by writing two little pages every day, no matter what. But I am extraordinarily happy.

So, if you want my best advice, here it is: Work hard at what you love, and don’t stop, no matter what! (From her website)

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Make a comment if you have time. I enjoy reading all of them. Click on the comments link below.

Check the links to other Middle Grade novels over at Shannon Messenger’s Marvelous Middle Grade Monday post.