DeDe Takes Charge!

Everything Is Different The First Year A.D. -- After Divorce. If only it were before the divorce, when DeDe had a full-time father and a mother who didn't have to work odd hours to make ends meet. Visits to DeDe's busy father in New York City are fun but few and far between, and his tape-recorded voice on an answering machine only reminds DeDe of how much she misses him. At least DeDe still has her best friend Aldo and her dog Cookie, the canine vacuum cleaner.
DeDe is a never-say-die kid who is always thinking of clever ways to make life better for herself and Mom. Some of her dreams and schemes backfire; others produce unexpected surprises -- like the Vegetable Club that DeDe pushes Mom to join. But they all make for fast-paced, funny reading in this latest story by the wonderfully wise, always popular Johanna Hurwitz.