Close to Famous, by Joan Bauer

13-year old Foster McFee and her mother leave Memphis in a hurry when her mom's Elvis-impersonator boyfriend gives mom a black eye.  Leaving with only the items they can fit in their car, which is pretty much everything they own, they end up randomly stopping in Culpepper, West Virginia.  With no other destination in mind, they decide to stay in Culpepper, at least for the rest of the summer, and meet and befriend some of the town's inhabitants.  Because it is a small town, of course many of the inhabitants are eccentric and quirky, but at least their quirks are a different than the usual fare:  Miss Charleena is a former movie star who is hiding out after losing her confidence when her husband left her for a younger woman, Angry Wayne, owner of Angry Wayne's Bar and Grill is...if not angry, at least crotchety and a bit cranky, and Macon is a budding documentarist, just a tweenage one without a camera. 

The meat of the story involves Foster and her love of cooking - it's how she deals with the world and her apparent dyslexia.  The term is never used, but much is made of Foster's great memory, her cleverness and her struggle to read, as well as teachers accusing her of not trying hard enough - it seems unlikely that in 2011, she would have made it up through middle school without being formally diagnosed or anyone recognizing that she has an actual learning disability, but having just recently heard a talk from two parents of dyslexic children, it's apparently more common than we'd like to hear.


Foster's idol is Sonny Kroll, a chef on a cooking network, and she uses her skills in creating and memorizing recipes, particularly baked goods, as a way of earning money, getting approval and making friends and as a way of reminding herself of her worth when she is feeling stupid because of her inability to read, determined to one day get a cooking show of her own.  One of the main plots of the story involves Miss Charleena, who also is dyslexic, working with Foster on her reading - in return Foster helps convince Charleena to get back out into the acting world and take a part in a new movie.


Reviews keep referring to the heartwarming nature of the story, especially the ending, and I agree it was sweet in places and that Foster is a likeable character.  It was also nice to see a story where Foster's biracialness and learning disability are just part of who she is, with none of the townsfolk judging her or her mother for it.  And it's nice to see a character who lost a father to war, since our country is currently embroiled in several of them.  

But I was disappointed that there wasn't much character development for any of them, aside from Foster - but the book takes place over such a short amount of time, so much development would be difficult to do. It was also disappointing that everything seems to fit so well together - Miss Charleena teaching Foster to read, Foster's cupcakes stopping an escaped convict, Foster's mom singing for a benefit for a town church, saving the church's program for families of prisoners...it just all seemed so pat, more appropriate for a story for younger readers instead of a teen novel.  I've liked several other Joan Bauer novels much better.  Although I do want the recipe for some of Foster's cupcakes and muffins.