"Readers who cherish historic buildings and traditions will feel a strong kinship to the highly motivated Texas teen at the center of Nye's (Habibi) novel, who wants her distaste for large franchise establishments known. On her 16th birthday, Florrie starts a campaign, urging family members, friends, classmates and citizens of San Antonio to boycott business chains and begin frequenting locally owned shops and restaurants such as her mother's Mexican diner, El Viento. (The girl 'loved old things in a way that even she could not understand.') Leading demonstrations and protests against such establishments as Wal-Mart, Florrie makes her voice heard, gains publicity for her cause and in doing so, piques the interest of a cute boy, Ramsey, whose father ironically manages a Marriott. While the novel succeeds in showing that one person can make a difference, readers may be a bit disappointed that Florrie's relationships with the other characters are not as well developed as her passion for saving small businesses. Her brief romance with Ramsey is sketchily defined as are her feelings for an old flame, Zip, who is always ready and willing to lend a helping hand and sympathetic ear. While the author hints that there is more to Florrie than meets the eye, only one side of the heroine is thoroughly explored, the side that abhors change and longs to preserve the past. Ages 12-up." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"Nye brings close the sorrow of historic landmarks obliterated in one's hometown, and teen conservationists everywhere will recognize the arguments." Hazel Rochman, Booklist

From the author of "Habibi" comes this effervescent, timely, and romantic novel by one of the nation's most beloved poets. On her 16th birthday, Florrie makes a wish that changes not only her but her family as well.

Naomi Shihab Nye is a poet, essayist, and novelist. She has received a Lannan Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and four Pushcart Prizes. Her collection 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East was a finalist for the National Book Award. She is the author of two acclaimed novels for teens, Habibi and Going Going, and her essay "Maintenance" appeared in The Best American Essays, 1991, edited by Joyce Carol Oates. School Library Journal said of her collection of essays, Never in a Hurry, "The author has the ability to perceive and describe her surroundings so skillfully that readers are drawn into these experiences and are enriched in the process." Naomi Shihab Nye describes herself as "a wandering poet." She calls San Antonio, Texas, home.