From Publishers Weekly
Seventh-grader Hillary has moved around so much that nothing in her environment seems to have a past or a future. She wonders if buildings, towns and even people really exist or are merely images planted in her imagination by invisible "Watchers," who wait to see how she will react to new settings and situations. Koss (The Trouble with Zinny Weston) portrays Hillary with such sympathy and wit that readers understand her Watchers game as a comic expression of the loneliness Hillary cannot express. When Hillary's "gypsy" parents, who make their living selling handmade "gizmos" at street fairs and bazaars all over the country, accept a house-sitting job in Ashland, Calif., Hillary assumes it is another of the Watchers' experiments. Gradually, however, her surroundings begin seeming more solid than illusory. She makes friends with two classmates, one the leader of the popular clique and the other a misfit, and the borrowed house begins to feel like a home. This sensitively wrought novel contains enough unique personalities and interesting twists to keep the audience absorbed. Hillary's need to establish roots and her mildly conflicted loyalty to her parents are thoughtfully conveyed, and the conclusion, realistic rather than easy, ends the story on a poignant note. Like Hillary's new friends in Ashwater, readers will be sorry to see this heroine go. Ages 9-13. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From School Library Journal
Grade 4-6-Hillary, 12, has dealt with change all her life. Her free-spirited parents lead a semi-nomadic life traveling between craft fairs, so she has attended 17 different schools. After becoming conditioned to this peripatetic lifestyle, she is dismayed to learn that her family will be spending the next nine months in Ashwater, CA. From her travels, Hillary has learned that every school has its class clown, popular clique, brainy outcast, etc., and it doesn't take long to distinguish these types in her new class. What's different about Ashwater, though, is that these people become more and more real to Hillary as time passes. Amazingly, she becomes friends with both Serena, the queen bee of the in-crowd, and Cass, the smart girl who is a true kindred spirit. Koss's strong characterizations make the relationships believable, and the story of how Hillary manages to stay friendly with such different people is a valuable model for young readers, who often feel forced to choose between certain groups. In the end, Hillary moves from isolation to making connections; by so doing, her friendships bloom and she becomes a stronger, more self-assured person.Robin L. Gibson, Muskingum County Library System, Zanesville, OH Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Grade 4-6-Hillary learns about the give and take of friendship when her peripatetic, hippie parents put down temporary roots long enough for her to get to know her classmates. A wise and witty exploration of a girl learning about herself and others. (Aug.) Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
When Hillary spends nine months in Ashwater, California, it's longer than she's lived anywhere in her entire life. Her parents are hippies who sell their gizmos at flea markets, and they cannot bear to stay put anywhere. They love Hillary, and she has always enjoyed their wandering life together, but then she gets to feel at home in Ashwater. The shallow, popular crowd lets her in, and, above all, she makes a real friend. This time, she cannot bear to leave. Hillary's first-person narrative will grab middle-graders, whether she's describing her gentle, flaky parents or the kids hanging out at the mall. There's some intrusive stuff about Hillary telling herself that she's part of an "Experiment" and that she's the only person who's real; but what will hold readers is the sharp, funny commentary on the contemporary scene. Koss humanizes not only the klutzy, smart outsider (who becomes Hillary's soulmate) but also the flashy popular girl (whose home life is far from ideal). And at the center is that elemental conflict about leaving home: do you feel rooted where you live or imprisoned there? Do you want to stay or get out? Hazel Rochman


From Kirkus Reviews
The daughter of happily itinerant parents gets a world-altering taste of settled life in this engagingly cast story. Having spent her entire life on the road, nine months in one place looks like prison to Hillary, but her parents have agreed to house-sit for a family on sabbatical. Treating the experience as a test of character imposed by unseen watchers, she abandons her usual self- imposed isolation and deliberately sets out to make connections in her new (and her 18th) school, agreeing to tutor Brian, a student with Attention Deficit Disorder, in math, joining the circle of class queen Serena, and forming an unexpectedly deep friendship with Cass, a thoughtful loner. Readers will see past her pretense that it's all just role-playing to the lonely, sensitive child within, and will be further attracted by the quiet competence with which she faces each challenge, whether it be managing the family finances for her feckless parents or mending fences with a jealous classmate. The roots this new life strikes in Hillary are deep and quick, but Koss (The Trouble With Zinny Weston, 1998) gives the tale an unpredictable twist when Cass indignantly rejects her grandparents' offer of a permanent home, then pays the price when she and her parents are suddenly forced to pull up stakes. Undercurrents of humor, and characters who seem typecast initially but develop surprising complexities, give this bittersweet tale unusual depth. (Fiction. 10-13) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

ANNOTATION

Twelve-year-old Hillary, who has traveled across the country all her life with her parents who sell crafts, finds herself facing a stay of nine whole months in Ashwater, California.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

For the eighteenth time since kinder-garten, twelve-year-old Hillary will enter a new school, and from years of experi-ence she anticipates the territory with its familiar cast of characters: the class clown, the popular girls, the really smart kid, and the sleepwalkers, "the kids who make up most of the class." Her likable, peripa-tetic, hippie-holdover parents travel the country selling handmade gizmos, "jewelry, refrigerator magnets, toothpick holder...recycled rearrangement[s] of resources." They decide to take up an offer to housesit a typical suburban home in Ashwater, California, for nine months, the longest stay anywhere in Hillary's memory. Hillary's visiting grandparents condemn her life as a "circus train" with parents who "think they're Peter Pan," but Hillary defends her life as fine. Yet Hillary's skewed sense of the world accounts for Koss's title: Hillary imagines she is the center of a giant experiment in which the rest of the world exists only to test her reactions, and only she is real. "I...imagined that on the other side of the door was absolutely nothing. Space, black and swirling. It would take my opening the door to make something appear behind it. I opened it and an entire scene came to life, complete with furniture, characters, even sound effects." She dubs those who observe her reactions the Watchers, and writes to them in her journal. Her smart, lightly ironic voice controls the narrative as well as her probing journalistic introspection. Put aside all your preconceptions about what will happen when Hillary becomes part of the "Serenas," the popular girls; makes a genuine friend of Cass, the really smart kid; and tutors Brian, the class clown. Koss artfully sidesteps the predictable and crafts a truly original piece of fiction brimming with humor and insight. Any child who has ever asked (and who has not?), "Do you ever feel like no one else is real but you?" will feel she has arrived home, like Hillary, in Ashwater.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

A seventh grader has moved around so much that nothing in her environment seems to have a past or future. "This sensitively wrought novel contains enough unique personalities and interesting twists to keep the audience absorbed," wrote PW. Ages 10-14. (Apr.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

KLIATT

Hillary Siegal has lived her life on the road. Her parents sell "gizmos" at local flea markets and art fairs, and rarely do they stay in one place longer than a few months. Hillary has really taken to this migratory life, never truly connecting with others her age but instead becoming an adult more and more quickly within her family structure. She keeps her family's books and maps out their travel schedule with a well-worn atlas. However, when Hillary and her family arrive in Ashwater, California, things change for her. The family becomes settled and adapts to the more traditional life of Ashwater, and Hillary, for the first time in her life, begins to make friends, even with the popular girls that in the past she had always despised and criticized. Just as she gets comfortable with her new life, the family whose house they had been staying at returns, and Hillary's new life is turned upside down again. This story has a wonderful voice, interesting conflicts and intriguing twists and turns, not to mention the authentic voice of teenage Hillary and the other young people in the story. There are many lessons here that I hope the readers will take with them. An ALA Best Book for YAs. KLIATT Codes: JS—Recommended for junior and senior high school students. 1999, Penguin, Puffin, 153p. 20cm. 98-23995., $5.99. Ages 13 to 18. Reviewer: Sarah Applegate; Libn., River Ridge H.S., Lacey, WA , July 2001 (Vol. 35, No. 4)

Library Journal

Gr 4-6-Hillary learns about the give and take of friendship when her peripatetic, hippie parents put down temporary roots long enough for her to get to know her classmates. A wise and witty exploration of a girl learning about herself and others. (Aug.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal

Gr 4-6-Hillary, 12, has dealt with change all her life. Her free-spirited parents lead a semi-nomadic life traveling between craft fairs, so she has attended 17 different schools. After becoming conditioned to this peripatetic lifestyle, she is dismayed to learn that her family will be spending the next nine months in Ashwater, CA. From her travels, Hillary has learned that every school has its class clown, popular clique, brainy outcast, etc., and it doesn't take long to distinguish these types in her new class. What's different about Ashwater, though, is that these people become more and more real to Hillary as time passes. Amazingly, she becomes friends with both Serena, the queen bee of the in-crowd, and Cass, the smart girl who is a true kindred spirit. Koss's strong characterizations make the relationships believable, and the story of how Hillary manages to stay friendly with such different people is a valuable model for young readers, who often feel forced to choose between certain groups. In the end, Hillary moves from isolation to making connections; by so doing, her friendships bloom and she becomes a stronger, more self-assured person.-Robin L. Gibson, Muskingum County Library System, Zanesville, OH Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

The daughter of happily itinerant parents gets a world-altering taste of settled life in this engagingly cast story. Having spent her entire life on the road, nine months in one place looks like prison to Hillary, but her parents have agreed to house-sit for a family on sabbatical. Treating the experience as a test of character imposed by unseen watchers, she abandons her usual self-imposed isolation and deliberately sets out to make connections in her new (and her 18th) school, agreeing to tutor Brian, a student with Attention Deficit Disorder, in math, joining the circle of class queen Serena, and forming an unexpectedly deep friendship with Cass, a thoughtful loner. Readers will see past her pretense that it's all just role-playing to the lonely, sensitive child within, and will be further attracted by the quiet competence with which she faces each challenge, whether it be managing the family finances for her feckless parents or mending fences with a jealous classmate. The roots this new life strikes in Hillary are deep and quick, but Koss (The Trouble With Zinny Weston, 1998) gives the tale an unpredictable twist when Cass indignantly rejects her grandparents' offer of a permanent home, then pays the price when she and her parents are suddenly forced to pull up stakes. Undercurrents of humor, and characters who seem typecast initially but develop surprising complexities, give this bittersweet tale unusual depth. (Fiction. 10-13)