Sarah Simpson's Rules for Living Book

Sarah Simpson’s Rules for Living:
1. Don’t lie.
2. Don’t trust anybody but cats.
3. Don’t expect happy endings.
4. Drink skim milk.
5. Avoid blondes.

Sarah Simpson loves to make lists. She has lists of the things she doesn’t like about her father’s new (blond tennis instructor) wife, things she doesn’t like about her mother’s new (nerdy, zebra-shirt-wearing) boyfriend, and reasons why life is just plain unfair.

Through the school play, new friendships, and adjusted relationships, Sarah begins to realize that change might not be such a horrible thing after all – and that families come in all shapes and sizes.

Is it time for a REVISED Rules for Living?

Publishers Weekly

Written as witty, off-the-cuff journal entries, this inviting novel takes preadolescent angst and doses it with pure heart. Like the heroine of Jennifer L. Holm's Middle School Is Worse than Meatloaf, pudgy 12-year-old Sarah Elizabeth Simpson has a penchant for making lists, and these elaborate upon her many concerns. Her first entry, for January 1, combines a cool running commentary with no less than five lists, among them "Things I Do Not Like About Kim [her father's new wife]," "Things I Do Not Like About Jonah [her mother's boyfriend]" and New Year's resolutions she wishes Jonah would make ("2. Sell the van.... 4. Quit singing 'We Shall Overcome.' 5. Shave"). Although Sarah's tone ranges widely, from resentful to full-out funny ("Bad Things About Getting Older:... 7. Getting asked on dates. 8. Not getting asked on dates"), her vulnerable yet take-charge personality comes through. It finds its sharpest expression when Sarah, acting from a complicated set of motives that the author wisely leaves to readers to untangle, says something wounding to Jonah's five-year-old son and can't undo the damage. Covering a lot of territory in relatively few pages, Rupp (The Dragon of Lonely Island) delivers a story that both touches and convinces. Ages 8-12. (Feb.)