Gr 3-5-Allie Finkle recently moved into a big old house with her parents and two brothers and is beginning fourth grade. On her first day as the new girl at Pine Heights Elementary School, she has to eat popcorn for breakfast, is embarrassed by her little brother who insists he's a pirate, wears the wrong outfit for making a good first impression, and makes an enemy of the class bully. On top of all that, she soon discovers that Lady Serena Archibald, a show cat pregnant with Allie's promised kitten, is ill and may lose all her babies. How can this girl handle all these complications? Narrator Tara Sands breezes through Meg Cabot's second entry (Scholastic, 2008) in the series with an enthusiastic, youthful voice for Allie as she deftly voices more than a dozen supporting characters. This enjoyable story about the plucky youngster's struggles to deal with her family, friends, enemies, and the tricky situations life throws at her is an audio treat for girls who will easily relate to this realistic character.-Jennifer Verbrugge, Dakota County Library, Galaxie Branch, Apple Valley, MN (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.