Customer Reviews

Smoke Screen (American Girl (Paperback Unnumbered))

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Mitzi's mother is trying desperately quit smoking, and her withdrawal symptons is driving the whole family crazy. But Mitzi has more to worry about than her Mom's mood swings. She's got to find a way to get Mike Humphrey, her mad crush, to beam his ultra-smile in her direction. And her best friend, Birdy, is too busy getting chummy with a popular girl named Roxy to help. So when Mitzi tells miake a huge lie about her mother's condtition just to get his attention, she has no one to blame but herself for the trouble that follows.
I really enjoyed this story, even though I have never had any similar problems. I can still relate to Mitzi though, by the way she tries to get boy's attention, yet I have never gotten in as much trouble as she does in this story !

I found this book to be very helpful for kids because I learned that smoking is very bad for your health. Plus I enjoyed the characters especially Mitzi Burk and Mike Humphrey. Her problems are very big and the lesson is that lying doesn't ger you anywhere. So that's why I gave it five stars.

The book I read is called Smokescreen and it is by Amy Coss. The story is about a normal girl Mitzi and she has troubles with her life. The first trouble she has in her life is that her mom smokes a lot. Her mom keeps on trying to quit but can't handle herself and keeps smoking. Her second problem is that her best friend has a new girl to hang out with named Roxy and Mitzi feels forlorn. She is also concerned for her best friend because Roxy and Birdy (the best friend) were caught smoking a cigarette. The third problem is that a boy named Mike Humphrey does not notice her. The last problem is a result of Mitzi trying to get Mike to like her. Mitzi tells Mike that her mother is DEATHLY ill and is in the hospital. Mitzi thinks that by telling Mike this, he will feel pity on her and start liking her. But her plan backfires because Mitzi's mother is first off, not ill at all. Second off, Mitzi keeps worrying about her mother running into Mike's mother. And lastly Mitzi feels pretty bad about telling such a bad lie like that just to get some guy to notice her. All of these problems are resolved though. The smoking problem with the mother is resolved when the mother realizes the lie Mitzi told was based on her smoking. The problem with Birdy hanging out with Roxy more was resolved because Birdy realized that she honestly didn't like Roxy and Roxy just got Birdy into trouble. The problem with Mike Humphrey was resolved when Mitzi found out that Mike was just another comic-book dork. And finally the problem with the lie was resolved when the parents of Mitzi said that she did not have to tell the truth to the school because it was actually the parents fault for her lies.

This book is called Smoke Screen. It was written by Amy Goldberg. I would recommend this book to someone because it is a book that you don't want to put down. My favorite part in the book is when her mom stops smoking, but at that same time her boyfriend breaks up with her. That part is funny because she was happy that her mom stopped smoking, but she was upset that her boyfriend hurt her feelings. She had a fit. Then when her boyfriend went back to her, her mom started smoking again. The problem was that her mom didn't like her boyfriend, so when they got back together her mom got stressed. You must read this book.

Smoke Screen kept me turning the pages but I wouldn't put it in with my top five books. I loved how the book was written, i liked the characters and the conflict in the book kept me interested. I would recommend this to a friend because it was to the point and didn't babble on forever about what was going on.

I liked this book because it talkes about the importance of not smoking, especially when you have children. This book talks about this girl and her mom, who's smoking, and how the girl struggles to get her mom to stop smoking. A very good lesson for children of almost all ages.