The Spell Book of Listen Tyler by Jaclyn Moriarty

Listen Taylor is a quiet girl starting the seventh grade. At the beginning of the school year her group of friends dumps her and for the rest of the year she has trouble finding a truly fitting group of friends. One day she comes upon a spell book with crazy spells in it such as "spell to make a person catch a taxi" or "spell to make someone get stung by a bee." Although it may seem fantasy-like the book is actually very realistic. As mentioned before Listen faces friend problems, just like the rest of us. Also the other main characters face many a realistic problem. Marbie Zing, Listen's father's girlfriend, makes a terrible mistake, Fancy Zing, Marbie's sister, is confused with her life, and Cath Murphy, the teacher of Fancy's second grader, has fallen in love with a married man. Along with the stories about the troubles all the main characters are facing there is the Zing family secret, which all characters will go to earth's end to protect. There are many clues within the book that lead to the eventual telling of the secret -- prepare yourself for a major shocker.

I thought that book was o.k. It wasn't my favorite, but it was definitely good. There were elements of suspense, romance, and at points it was easy to relate to.The book was also like a puzzle. Trying to put everything together so that the reader could figure out the Zing family secret before it was told in the book. At points it did become confusing because there are many sub-stories told within the book that don't really have anything to do with the book, until the final chapters.