As promised, Madame L has had a chance to read that other book about naked mole rats.
Actually, like the first one, this book isn't as much about naked mole rats as it is about human beings and how they get along with each other...
...which is, perhaps not too surprisingly, something like the way naked mole rats get along with each other.
Oh, yes, the book --- "The Naked Mole-Rat Letters," by Mary Amato --- is for middle-grade readers, which includes, apparently, Madame L and a lot of other adults, too.
Naked mole rats are not writing letters here, but a young girl whose mother has died is writing email messages to a woman she suspects her dad has fallen in love with. Like many people of any age, she finds it hard to think of her dad falling in love with someone new, so she takes steps to disrupt the relationship, and shenanigans ensue.
Madame L loves the idea of an epistolary novel from the point of view of a 7th-grader. And the author makes it work, makes it believable, makes it funny and tragic from moment to moment, and ensnares the reader in the emotional turmoil so typical of that age.
The book costs $7.95 new from Amazon, and Madame L found listings for several other books by the author. As much as she enjoyed this one, though, and as interesting as the others look, Madame L isn't planning to buy another one. It was all about that serendipitous connection with the naked mole rat in the read-aloud book.
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