My Life in Pink & Green: Pink & Green Book One - Hardcover

Lisa Greenwald works in the library at the Birch Wathen Lenox School on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. She is also a recent graduate of the New School’s MFA program in writing for children. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

After 12-year-old Lucy spots a foreclosure warning in the mail, she realizes that the small-town Connecticut pharmacy owned and run by her mother and grandmother is in jeopardy. While Mom and Grandma argue about how to handle the crisis, Lucy, an aspiring makeup artist, joins her school’s Earth Club, researches green businesses, and hatches a plan to expand the pharmacy into an eco-spa. Many young readers will recognize likable Lucy’s frustrations (“I can’t wait for the day when adults take kids seriously”), as well as her growing excitement, all expressed in an utterly believable voice: “The Earth would be healthier just because of us . . . Like, my heart beats really fast when I think about it.” Tales of young entrepreneurs featuring wish-fulfilling plots of young people gaining power have perennial appeal. This story of a family coping with dramatic financial strain may have particular resonance in the current climate, and Greenwald deftly blends eco-facts and makeup tips, friendship and family dynamics, and spot-on middle-school politics into a warm, uplifting debut. Grades 4-7. --Gillian Engberg