Title:   Surviving Aunt Marsha by Sofie Laguna, ISBN:  0-439-64485-2, Scholastic Press, New York, 2005, $15.95, 202 pp.

Genre:  Fiction, family/siblings.

Characters:  Bettina, Vince, Aidan, and Aunt Marsha

Plot:   When Bettina’s parents go away to Paris for three weeks, they leave the kids with Aunt Marsha.  The kids aren’t thrilled since their dad isn’t even fond of his own sister.  Aunt Marsha likes cabbage and grapefruit and changes the house.  So why would their parents leave them with her?  The parents explain that they want to renew their vows and Aunt Marsha is the only one that can take care of them for such a long time. 

As soon as the parents leave, Aunt Marsha starts changing things.  She makes Mandy, the dog, stay outside.  She says Mandy is not allowed in the house.  This makes Vince sleep in the dog house with Mandy.  Bettina is the oldest and tries to make her brothers mind Aunt Marsha but there are too many changes and even Tine can’t adapt.

The weeks trudge by as Aunt Marsha makes more and more changes.  The last straw is when Aunt Marsha throws away Aidan’s comic books.  Comic books are the only things that Aidan will read.  Aunt Marsha is a big Dickens fan and thinks everyone should read hi books.  Aidan is so distraught he runs to the tree house and won’t come down.  There’s a storm coming and Aunt Marsha is worried he may get struck by lightning if he doesn’t come down right away.  Tine and Vince try but there is not way of getting Aidan to come down.

Although Aunt Marsha is terrified of heights, she thinks that if she were to go up Aidan would come down.  She gets stuck on her way up the tree and Aidan is already down.  Now the kids have to find a way to get Aunt Marsha unstuck.  Vince decides that the Mandy lift (a pulley system that allows the dog to get in and out of the tree house), is the only way to save Aunt Marsha.  They work together and free Aunt Marsha.  The kids realize that Aunt Marsha wasn’t that bad after all and Aunt Marsha realizes that her way isn’t always the best way. 

The remaining few days before the parents get home are uneventful and Aidan is actually reading the Dickens book Aunt Marsha gave him.  The kids are actually sorry to see Aunt Marsha go.

Related Titles:  Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing  by Judy Blume

                              Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko

                               Tangerine by Edward Bloor

Evaluation: 6 out of 10.

Reviewed by: Judith Hesse, University of Toledo