Lisa Greenwald has written an excellent book for young teenage girls (teen boys probably won’t be as interested) in My Life in Pink & Green.  Girls will like it because of the well-plotted story and all the fun the characters have.

Lucky Desberg, a seventh-grader, is trying to figure out how to save the family drugstore, and so comes up with various ways to make the pharmacy the center of town again.  Following along as she tries to save the drugstore, the reader meets a wide assortment of characters, drawn by the author as realistic teens—the girls more than the boys.  The grandmother is also a realistic character, but the mother seems out of place with all the other characters.  Maybe that is the impression the author was after.  If so, she succeeded.

The subplot is as absorbing as the main story.  Lucy wants to become a cosmetic mogul, and she shows she has the aptitude for such a profession.  Now all she needs is some practice.

The love connections are drawn much as one would expect at this level.  Both Lucy and her friends are at a loss on how to deal with their feelings toward boys that they like.

The novel has several things going for it.  First it shows a seventh grader who has the drive (despite opposition from her mother and grandmother) to make an attempt to save the drugstore.  It dwells on the idea of entrepreneurial skills for young teens, and it has a lot to say about saving the environment (going green).