In the blink of a summer, Bea goes from having a best friend and a place she belongs to being dropped and invisible, eating lunch alone and only talking to teachers. The end of sixth grade and the start of Camp Amelia can't come soon enough.

But then the worst part of school, ex-best friend Maisy, shows up in Bea's safe place and ruins it all. Maisy lands in the same bunk as Bea and summer suddenly seems dire. Never having camped a day in her life, Maisy agrees: it's hopeless. She should be at home, spending time with her little sister and hanging out with her super popular crew of friends--not at this stupid adventure camp failing everything and being hated by everyone. In a desperate bid to belong, Maisy offers Bea a deal: if Bea helps her fit in at the camp, she will get Bea into the M & M's, their town's popular clique, when they enter seventh grade in the fall. The Popularity Pact is born.

 

Eileen Moskowitz-Palma, a former elementary school teacher, is an alumna of Sarah Lawrence College's The Writing Institute, where she teaches Beginner and Intermediate Novel Writing. Eileen lives a vegan-ish lifestyle, unless you count an occasional bacon cheeseburger, and is a half-marathoner who hopes to be brave enough to one day run the full. She lives in Bronxville, NY, with her college sweetheart, Douglas, their teen daughter, Molly, and her Wire Fox Terrier, Oscar, who is one snaggle-tooth away from being a doggy model.