Destiny, Rewritten by Kathryn Fitzmaurice (review)

Sixth-grader Emily Elizabeth Davis has serious questions about fate and destiny, as well as about her own parentage. Her hippie-esque mother, a poet and professor at Berkley, believes that fate hinges upon following little signs the universe gives and maintains the fates don't want Emily to know who her real father is. Emily grows increasingly skeptical that one's destiny is set in stone, and she rejects her mother's version of the world by secretly looking for her dad and by deciding to become a romance writer, like her hero Danielle Steele, instead of the poet her mother hopes she'll be. Emily's exploration of fate is intriguingly presented, and a happy ending comes about through both Emily's choices and pure luck, leaving readers with the pleasantly paradoxical idea that fate is both beyond and within one's control. Her mother's coy silence makes Emily's decision to grab the reins of her own destiny entirely plausible, and Emily is a strong and likable heroine. The Berkeley setting (complete with literal tree-huggers) is credibly evoked, and secondary characters, particularly Mortie, Emily's younger, military-obsessed cousin (who is actually quite helpful in her quest to find her father), are engagingly depicted as well. This would possibly make a good pairing with the film Brave for a duo of stories about girls trying to discern the boundaries of fate.