By Colorado Kids Advisory Board member Caitlin Rice

Title: The Amazing Days of Abby Hayes
Author: Anne Mazer
Publisher: Scholastic
Number of Pages: 118 pages

Do you ever feel like everyone but you is a superstar in some way? Have you ever felt like you are the only one in your family who doesn't excel at something? If you have ever struggled with these feelings, then the book Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining, which is the first book in the new Amazing Days of Abby Hayes series written by Anne Mazer, is one you will not want to miss.

Abby is a twelve-year-old girl who can feel your pain. All Abby really wants to do is prove to her family that she deserves to be a Hayes, too. This is very hard for Abby because her little brother is a math genius, her older sister, Isabel, is a brilliant student and Isabel's twin, Eva, is a spectacular athlete.

Abby sets out to prove herself by trying to learn how to play soccer. She dreams of becoming great at it. Abby works really hard to master the game so that she enjoy that good feeling of having done well at something. As she works at proving herself on the fields, Abby continues to write in the journal she keeps every day. From her journal entries, she tells the readers all about her hopes and frustrations.

But Abby learns about something about herself that she didn't expect. Abby's discovery about herself is a really great part of the book because it shows that everyone has his or her own special gift and everyone can be good at one thing or another.

Being a sports nut, I liked that sports played a big part in the book. It helped me to relate to the character better. Also, I think the emphasis on sports makes the book one that boys might like, even though the main character is a girl. In some parts of the book, it seems like the author might not know that much about sports and I think the book would have been even better without those unrealistic parts. On the whole, though, I really enjoyed the book.

This is a book that I would definitely recommend to girls between the ages of 8 and 12 who sometimes feel like misfits. The author does an amazing job describing what it is like to feel as if you don't fit in and how to overcome that.

I would also recommend the Declaration of Independence which is the second book in this series. Both books are a great read and have some great lessons in them. I would give them both two thumbs up! (December, 2000)