The Great Mom Swap - Softcover

Grade 5-7 Seventh-grade best friends Lorna and Scotti realize that each of their mothers seems to have only criticism for her daughter and praise for her daughter's friend. Out of frustration, the girls hatch the idea for The Great Mom Swap. On the doubtful premise that it would be great practice for becoming foreign exchange students, they talk their parents into letting them switch house and families as well as moms. Scotti's airline-employed parents take Lorna on a trip to Hawaii, and Lorna's mother takes Scotti to an interview with a New York publisher who has come to Dallas. The girls find new conflicts replacing the ones they have escaped. Lorna's family sleeps in on weekends, but Scotti's mother gets Lorna up for 6 a.m. exercise. Scotti, an only child, is flustered by Lorna's attractive older brother and irritated by her commercial-reciting younger sister. Character development is slight, especially the adults, but the theme of critical parents will find an ample audience among junior high school readers, especially those who enjoyed the author's "Taffy Sinclair" series (Bantam). Candy Colborn, Cottonwood Creek Elementary School, Englewood, Colo.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

At 13, best friends Lorna Markham and Scotti Wheeler have concluded that they were born to the wrong mothers. Scotti's mother wants Scotti to cut out sweets from her diet and be more like Lorna, who's thin and athletic; Lorna's mom wishes Lorna could apply herself to her work like Scotti, who's writing her first novel. Each girl convinces her parents of the need for her to move into the other girl's home, claiming that it will prepare her for life as a foreign exchange student later on. Once the switch is complete, the girls regret it almost instantly. But their parents seem to have adjusted perfectly: the Wheelers are taking Lorna to Hawaii with them; the Markhams have made an appointment for Scotti to show her novel to a publisher. Misunderstandings abound, but the girls are back in their respective rooms by the end of the book, completely persuaded that having the wrong mother is better than having someone else's mother. Haynes's best friends are funny and typically 13, but parts of the book are contrived, and the parents come off as daffy and insensitive.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.