Title: Ten Rules for Living With my Sister

Author: Ann M. Martin

Genre: Middle Grade Fiction, ages 9-12 (according to Kirkus Reviews)

Length: 256 pages

Publisher: Square Fish; Reprint edition (September 4, 2012)

Source: borrowed from library

Blurb: Pearl’s older sister, Lexie, is in eighth grade and has a boyfriend. Pearl’s only boyfriend is the family’s crabby cat, Bitey. Lexie is popular. Pearl is not, mostly because of the embarrassing Three Bad Things that happened in school and which no one has forgotten. Everything Pearl does seems to drive Lexie crazy. On top of that, their grandfather is moving into their family’s apartment and taking over Pearl’s room. How will these sisters share without driving each other crazy? Pearl is good at making lists of rules, but sometimes, life doesn’t play by the rules!

Wow, this was such a cute, sweet book! It made me laugh and I really sympathized with Pearl, the Main Character. Life is tough for Pearl – as a fourth grader, with a 1st-grade best friend, and three enemies (‘Jill-Rachel-Katie’), plus an annoying older sister to boot. I’ve wanted to read to read it for a while now, but my bookstore only carried the hardback copy, which I didn’t want to spend a ton of money on. When my library got it, I checked it out right away – oohhhh my goodness, the pages smelled awesome. (That was… well… anyway!)

More than the pages, though (lol!), this book will be a favorite of mine for a while now because it reminded me a lot of my sister and I. Of course, I’m an older sister, so it’s bit different, but it was cool looking through the younger sister’s point of view. They… see things differently, I guess. (Sigh.)But it did make me bust out laughing a lot – Pearl’s imagination reminded me a little of Ramona, or Clementine. It was very relatable, to me.

The characters all changed a bit, in some way or another, by the end of the book. Pearl’s sister, Lexie, became a little less snobby, Pearl learned how to handle and be kinder to her sister, and even Pearl and Lexie’s grandfather, Daddy Bo, comes to peace with moving into a retirement home.

Now, I know I’m biased here, but I totally reject the whole “snobby, mean older sister” stereotype. I was appalled in the beginning of the book – whaaat? C’mon, Pearl, your older sister just needs her space. Take a hint! Besides, I’m not like that. (Riiigghhhtt, Anna??)

So this was an awesome book – I loved it! I give it four stars =)

Go and read it – and tell me what you think about it! 🙂