Remember that book you read at that time in your life when everything seemed to be going crazy --- the one book that brought the world into focus and helped soothe your raging teenage angst?

From Laura Lippman’s Foreword

“Some people are baffled by re-reading. What’s the point? There’s so much else to read. With these essays, Lizzie Skurnick has answered those questions. It’s as if a kindly psychiatrist suddenly appeared with a sheaf of missing brain scans. Do you giggle when someone tells you to ‘sit here for the present’? You are channeling Ramona Quimby, who turned those simple words into a daunting challenge. Does the mere mention of a mink-trimmed coat make you secretly swoon, even though you are rabidly anti-fur? You have ‘A Little Princess’ complex. Do you long to cover your enemies with leeches? You’re having a ‘Little House’ flashback…. So stretch out on Dr. Lizzie’s couch and find out why you think it would be kind of cozy to be locked up in an attic with your brother. Or learn to dissect the subtle class consciousness of Judy Blume’s New Jersey. Ponder the way that Lois Duncan’s characters come into unexpected powers, natural and supernatural alike, as they enter adolescence.”

And most of all, enjoy.