Reviewed by: Girl from Mars Deborah Stevenson Bach, Tamara; Girl from Mars; tr. by Shelley Tanaka. Groundwood/House of Anansi, 2008; 180p Trade ed. ISBN 978-0-88899-724-1 $16.95 Paper ed. ISBN 978-0-88899-725-8 $12.95 R Gr. 9–12 Miriam, fifteen, is, as far as she’s concerned, average and ordinary, the adjunct friend and the overlooked one in most situations, in a life where “every day is the same.” Her days begin to change when she becomes friends with Laura, a cool classmate who rolls her own cigarettes and seems indifferent to the usual high-school trivia. Soon Miriam is head over heels for Laura, but she’s not sure if her feelings are reciprocated, so she’s left in an agonizing blend of love and uncertainty. This German import feels more like a vignette than a full-blown novel, but it’s an interesting one; Miriam is vividly drawn as the kind of person who’s so mired in her own uncertainty that her self-concern blocks out awareness of others’ feelings, and Bach effectively ties her young protagonist’s new feelings to her moving into a new, more adult phase of life in general. Glimpses of Miriam’s family life are well [End Page 5] drawn, showing both her changing interaction with her mother and brother and their more thoughtful responses to her as she grows into herself. While McMahon’s My Tiki Girl (BCCB 7/08) is a more full-throated story of love and self-realization, this is an evocative treatment of a girl’s heady launch into a new view of herself, which will stay with her even if its catalyst doesn’t. Copyright © 2008 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois