My One Hundred Adventures

By Polly Horvath

Rating: 4 1/2 stars

Jane lives year round on a Massachusetts beach with her poet mother and three siblings. The summer she is twelve, Jane feels restless and prays for 100 adventures to happen to her. While Jane doesn't cram 100 adventures into the summer, she does have many interesting encounters, from delivering bibles by hot air balloon to visiting psychics with the local preacher to heading out on a cross-country trip that never leaves the state to suddenly being presented with multiple possible father figures. Jane begins to realize, at the grown up age of twelve, that people may not always be what they seem, and that kindness and meanspiritedness can exist side by side everywhere. Reminiscent of Richard Peck's excellent A Long Way From Chicago, the adventures are sometimes humorous, sometimes serious, and are all helping Jane on her way to growing up. For doesn't everyone have different needs? And doesn't everyone deserve a second chance? A great story which will make you laugh and make you think all at the same time.