My Missmatched Life: A Marvelous, Zany, Kooky, Fabulous Scrapbook by Chronicle Books Ages 9-13 56 pages Chronicle Books April 2006 Spiral bound     There is a certain age, around ten to thirteen years, when young girls enjoy writing in journals or diaries, their heads filled with ideas about the lives they want, the people they love and their dreams for the future. My Missmatched Life is the perfect tool for an adventuresome young spirit who is ready to look at the world around her and commit her thoughts to memory. Bright, colorful, playfully illustrated and spiral-bound, this youth-oriented scrapbook is assembled with special appeal to such preteen girls. Sturdy and wear-resistant, this is a “scrapbook” meant to be used, with separate tabbed sections for “my zany life, my kooky world, my fabulous friends and my marvelous dreams.” Each section is formatted with specific tasks, a description of the topic at hand and a fill-in-the-blanks page for personal information with a quirky twist, encouraging playfulness and creativity. Each follows a consistent pattern, enabling the user to plan ahead for the photographs, images and souvenirs she wants to feature in each section of the scrapbook. For example, in “my zany life,” the book requests that its owner paste in baby pictures to track her life from birth to date. The opposite page (a clever and consistent feature) is titled “mix-it-up,” meant for pictures of famous people she admires, magazine clippings, stars born on the same day, etc., instructing the reader to draw, paste, collage… whatever strikes her fancy. Moving on there is a page for “my favorite crazy things” - photos and drawings, magazine images - followed by a page for favorite foods. Then another mix-it-up for the weirdest foods (“a freaky food log”) followed by a page for family photographs and another mix-it-up - the kind of animal each family member might be, a holiday page and a mix-it-up. This activity book speaks to family, friends, the developing self and the building of self-esteem, utilizing fanciful language and ideas to inspire an inner dialog that will both define and validate her personality and values. As silly as this book may look and as easy as it is to dismiss the chatter of you preteens, in My Missmatched Life much thought is given to the stimulation of the imagination and fostering of individuality so critical to healthy development. This is an excellent gift for a favorite girl, an ongoing project as she forges her identity with a generous helping of creativity and humor.       web reviews   Luan Gaines/2006 for curled up with a good kid's book   For grown-up fiction, nonfiction and speculative fiction book reviews, visit our sister site Curled Up With a Good Book (www.curledup.com)