The Practical County Drama Queen (ePub)

On their last day of 5th grade, eleven-year-old Frannie Ryan's friends are all making plans to hang out at the mall or spend long afternoons at the pool. But Frannie has bigger goals for her summer vacation. Frannie's big brother, Ronnie, is engaged to marry Precious Darling, one of Nowhere, Indiana's despised Darling sisters. With the wedding just ten weeks away and Frannie's level-headed big sister Libby away at vet school, Frannie has to rely on her best friend, the awkward but loyal Cooper Parker Walker, to help her find a way to keep Ronnie from making the biggest mistake of his life. As if plotting to stop a wedding isn't enough, Frannie finds that Granddad is becoming forgetful (and her overly-active brain immediately assumes the worst), Dad thinks the family farm needs a hired worker (an absolutely ridiculous notion according to Frannie), and Cooper's incessant stuttering is about to ruin whatever social life he had left (which, of course, is totally up to Frannie to fix as well).

As the youngest of Practical County's Ryan family, Frannie has grown up watching everything. Watching her older brother and sister show steers, watching her Granddad work with the cows and calves, and watching the Darling sisters manipulate, lie, and cheat at the Practical County Fair. Frannie has also grown up knowing that, if she's persistent enough, she can usually accomplish whatever she set out to do. But in this summer tale of growing up and letting go, Frannie begins to realize that some things in life are beyond her control.