Snail Mail No More

After a year of communicating via mail, long-distance friends Elizabeth Richardson and Tara*Starr Lane are ready for the more immediate communication of e-mail and the two's friendship grows even closer. Now in eighth grade, the girls exchange emails about their evolving lives.

Tara*Starr is getting used to having a baby sister, Scarlett, who was born prematurely and becomes a source of worry to the family, and trying to understand how a social studies project ruined her relationship with her boyfriend Bart.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth's father has returned, to the disappointment of Elizabeth's family. However, the family is deeply affected when Elizabeth's father is killed in a car crash. Elizabeth comes to realize that a chapter of her life has closed, but another is still beginning. In the process, the girls' friendship improves, despite their distance.

Mary Harris Russell of the Chicago Tribune praised the book's handling of societal issues within the story, stating "the mixture of frothy and heavy topics will be attractive to young readers who couldn't bear either all crisis or all party talk".^[1] The Daily Telegraph noted the book was "very American in attitude...but enough of a story to keep the interest up."^[2]