Breakfast at Sadie's (review)

Sadie and her mother are already struggling to make a go of Grace's Place, the B&B that was Sadie's late father's pride and joy, when Sadie's mother suddenly falls ill and ends up in the hospital. Sadie's young aunt Leona is supposed to be taking care of Sadie and running the business, but flighty Leona leaves in a fit of pique; Sadie, determined not to worry her mother and intent on keeping the authorities out of the situation, pretends that Leona is still there and decides to handle the B&B work herself. This is a credible iteration of that classic teen fantasy of taking over for an adult and doing it well. Weatherly effectively isolates Sadie and gives the situation weight without overbalancing the tragedy (Sadie's mother has Guillain-Barré Syndrome, a neurologically debilitating virus from which she will eventually recover completely) and provides her with a few touches of assistance—the nerdy kid next door, and the class brain who turns out to be a nice girl—without undermining her triumph. While the sidestory about Sadie's dismal academic performance takes up a bit more space than necessary, the book emphatically makes the point that she's extremely good at managing the hotel and that that's a considerable achievement for anybody, let alone a fourteen-year-old girl trying to work a full-time job around school attendance. There's a touch of survival-story appeal in the account, and readers will appreciate the tale of a kid who's better than the adults at coming through in the clutch.