REVIEW - SAVING CEECEE HONEYCUTT

"Saving CeeCee Honeycutt" by Beth Hoffman
Product Description(Amazon.com)
Twelve-year-old CeeCee Honeycutt is in trouble. For years, she has been the caretaker of her psychotic mother, Camille-the tiara-toting, lipstick-smeared laughingstock of an entire town-a woman trapped in her long-ago moment of glory as the 1951 Vidalia Onion Queen. But when Camille is hit by a truck and killed, CeeCee is left to fend for herself. To the rescue comes her previously unknown great-aunt, Tootie Caldwell.
In her vintage Packard convertible, Tootie whisks CeeCee away to Savannah's perfumed world of prosperity and Southern eccentricity, a world that seems to be run entirely by women. From the exotic Miz Thelma Rae Goodpepper, who bathes in her backyard bathtub and uses garden slugs as her secret weapons, to Tootie's all-knowing housekeeper, Oletta Jones, to Violene Hobbs, who entertains a local police officer in her canary-yellow peignoir, the women of Gaston Street keep CeeCee entertained and enthralled for an entire summer. It is a novel that explores the indomitable strengths of female friendship and gives us the story of a young girl who loses one mother and finds many others.
# Hardcover: 320 pages
# Publisher: Pamela Dorman Books (January 12, 2010)
# Language: English
# ISBN-10: 0670021393
# ISBN-13: 978-0670021390

MY THOUGHTS: This book so reminded me of The Help by Kathryn Stockett and Steel Magnolias by Robert Harling. As CeeCee gets to know all the folks in her new home, she eventually finds out who CeeCee really is. CeeCee spends her summer getting to know her new family. Aunt Tootie buys her clothes and takes her to the old house she has saved from the wrecking ball. Oletta feeds her with goodies and takes her to meet some old folks and makes some new friends there. Miz Goodpepper and Violene Hobbs keep CeeCee busy with their ongoing battle. But the big battle comes at the garden party Aunt Tootie has to introduce CeeCee to her garden club. Then the really scary day comes when CeeCee goes off to school. It's a private school for rich kids and CeeCee is so afraid she won't fit in, but she makes a new friend, Dixie McAlister. This is a really great first book from Ms. Hoffman. I am looking forward to reading more of her works.

MY RATING: 5