Highly organized, extraordinarily self-motivated, Bindy Mackenzie always has a plan. This year, her plan is to be at the top of every class. But she didn’t count on FAD. Friendship and Development is a new requirement—students are divided into small peer groups to learn to listen to and support one another. Bindy is always willing to be supportive: she has lots of ideas for study tips, homework habits, and other means of self-improvement for her peers. But that doesn’t seem to be what the bubbly young teacher or the seven other kids in the class are looking for. Jaclyn Moriarity’s hyperachieving, hypercritical, seemingly self-possessed main character finds herself starting to unravel over the course of a most challenging year that delivers some highly unexpected twists and turns. Perhaps not surprisingly, the more Bindy loses control of the events in her life, the more vulnerable—and likeable—she becomes as both a character and a classmate. In Bindy, Moriarty offers a fascinating character study wrapped in the plot of—yes—a murder mystery, told through memos, letters, e-mails, diary entries, homework assignments, school reports, and other communications. (Age 12 and older)