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Home Author Archive Dear Reader Notes Get KidBuzz Info Margie Gelbwasser Dear Librarian: When you grow up multicultural, which traditions do you embrace and which do you shun? Born in Russia, I came to the United States when I was three years old. However, the struggle of trying to fit in with both my American friends and my Russian home plagued me throughout my teens. Alyssa Bondar, a Russian-Jewish teen in New Jersey, walks this same tightrope in INCONVENIENT. Amid a popularity-hungry best friend and her first crush, Alyssa must also cope with her mother's alcoholism — something her Russian family believes is just a "normal" part of life. Family alcoholism continues to remain a shameful secret for too many teens. And too many cultures still adhere to the stereotype that it can't happen to them. To learn more about INCOVENIENT, a 2011 Sydney Taylor Notable Book for Teens, and win a signed copy, contact me via my website: www.MargieWrites.com. Margie Gelbwasser "The story is both hilarious and heartbreaking,... the situations are universal.... The story, especially the ending, is honest and unsentimental about the difficulties Alyssa faces."—Booklist "...Alyssa's story is a refreshing take on the YA problem novel, one that refuses melodrama and favors instead the powerful significance of the smaller moments of life-a smell, a look, a flash of a memory." —School Library Journal "Gelbwasser realistically portrays the shifting emotions of a teenager navigating complicated situations and conflicting loyalties. This is a complicated drama of people sinking to the lowest common denominator and rising to their best selves to do the right thing."—VOYA Inconvenient / Margie Gelbwasser / Flux Price: $9.95 / ISBN: 978-0738721484 / Published: November, 2010 Ages 7-12 / YA Margie Gelbwasser is one of our featured authors this week. Click here to view her reader comments and feel free to use them in your newsletters. TOP OF PAGE BACK TO MAIN LIBRARIAN PAGE © Copyright 2005 by AuthorBuzz