The Bedazzling Bowl, by Wendy Lynn Decker

Alyssa Marie Bellisher - Embellisher, for her penchant for making her stories just a teensy bit more interesting - is not having the greatest beginning to her school year. Bouncing off the walls in a brand new building as a fifth grader, with a new teacher and everything, change is the last thing Aly wants to deal with. Aly's good at pretending she likes lots of things - what kid isn't - but the one thing she can't pretend to like?

Change.

So, things are rocky enough, not to mention her older brother Zach being annoying again as usual and her on-again, off-again friend Kimber - who mom isn't so hot on Aly hanging around - being an unpredictable friend too. Aly can't wait to get to her fifth grade classroom and find her best friend Sandy, and then everything will be all right.

Horrors! Not only is Sandy nowhere in sight when Aly gets to her room, her friends with no explanations, but her teacher, Mrs. Canible - which sounds suspiciously like cannibal - is weird, has big teeth, and her room is not only stinky, but full of weird decorations.

Luckily, Aly catches a break; her fifth grade teacher is not fond of eating children, and even when she catches Aly passing a note suggesting otherwise, she laughs the whole thing off. However, that all fades into the background when Aly learns the next day Sandy won't be going to school with her anymore, because her parents have decided to home-school her instead!

What's a girl to do....especially a Christian girl who's now lost her best and only other Christian friend in the whole school? She could hang out with Kimber some more; even though Aly's mom doesn't really like it when they hang out, especially because Kimber doesn't act real Christian-like.

There's always the new girl who's been switched from the Special Ed classroom to their class, Cassidy. She seems nice, and really smart in math...maybe she would make a good friend?

No, that won't do! Cassidy walks strangely and looks weird, and everyone else thinks she's weird, too. Of course, balanced against her friends' opinions is that nagging Bible verse she's been trying to memorize all week - y'know, the one she's been falling asleep over? You shall be a light upon a hill....zzzzzz.

What's a girl who hates change supposed to do with a whole pocketful of it?

The Bedazzling Bowl, by freelance writer Wendy Lynn Decker, is a fun little story that's cute, culturally relative, and has innocent charm that will appeal to most elementary readers. Aly's travails are very reminiscent of another elementary student that hated change and had a hard time getting things right - good ole' Ramona the Brat - and this author's first foray in youth fiction pays a nice homage to Beverly Cleary's star-crossed heroine.

This is a great, edifying tale that's child safe for all, and addresses a lot of contemporary issues that Christian students didn't used to face: special education and inclusion, home-schooling versus public education, and it imparts some great lessons about how we should treat people who are different from us, as well as how young Christians should stand firm in their faith, even when most of their friends are not Christians.

This is a great read for all, and I'll be happy to buy this and store it away for the future for my daughter to read someday.