Piper Reed, Navy Brat by Kimberly Willis Holt

Main character: Nine-year-old Piper Reed
Location: Pensacola, Florida
Time period: Contemporary
Genre: J Fiction, Family

Piper Reed is the middle of three sisters, and--as the title informs us--a navy brat. That means that she is used to her family packing up and moving across country on short notice every couple of years. As, indeed, they have to do at the beginning of this book, leaving San Diego for Pensacola (or, as little sister Sam says, Pepsi-Cola) Florida.

This is an episodic family story, like all those Henry, Beezus and Ramona books by Beverly Cleary. Piper is a resourceful and clever girl. She's dyslexic so she sometimes struggles with schoolwork, but she is the one who is able to remember where little sister Sam left her doll and then deduces which moving box it's been packed in. While staying with cousins along the road, older sister Tori shows a mean side, but when Piper invites new friends to a party promising a real gypsy fortuneteller, Tori comes through and saves the day.

Piper Reed, Navy Brat is on the 2009-2010 Texas Bluebonnet Award Nominee List.