[close] Absolutely normal Mary Lou is all set for a boring summer, trying to find something, anything, to say in her school-assigned journal. Salamanca is a not-so-normal girl, on the road with her eccentric grandparents to find her erstwhile mother. And Zinnia is on the path (literally) to adulthood, seeking her identity in an old overgrown trail behind her family farmhouse. Three girls, three stories--Sharon Creech is the well-loved and award-winning author of these three novels, pulled together in a handy boxed set for her many fans who won't want to wait to get their hands on the next Creech title. Absolutely Normal Chaos, Walk Two Moons (a Newbery Medal winner), and Chasing Redbird are each sensitively drawn, witty, complex, and unexpected looks at young girls in that strange and bumpy land of adolescence. (Ages 9 to 14) --Emilie Coulter [close]