Today is Maureen Johnson’s birthday. Happy birthday, MoJo! Your most recent book lifted me right out of Brooklyn and plopped me down in Oz. Or, more accurately, into the fairy tale version of New York where Scarlett Martin and her wacky family live.
Here is what you folks who may be reading this here blog should know about Scarlett Fever: It is the second installment of a series of novels about a 15-year-old girl (named Scarlett, natch) whose family owns a rundown NYC hotel. In the first book (Suite Scarlett), our heroine got a job working for a crazy lady (crazy awesome, that is) named Amy Amberson. Mrs. Amberson is very wealthy, very eccentric, and — I almost hate to admit this — very cool. She’s also a former actress who has just started her own talent agency, and in this second novel she has Scarlett running around town trying to keep the talent happy. (more…)