Sister Sabotage (The Second Favorite Daughter’s Club #1)

Santana is tired of feeling like a “leftover” in her family, especially when compared to her older sister Victoria, who “was good at everything: academic decathlon, singing, math, you name it.” Meanwhile Casey, her father, and her younger sister have just moved to New Saybrook, Conn., and while most things are new, the feeling of being left out in her family remains. Her father and “half feral” sister are “two peas in a pod,” but all Casey wants is to be “normal,” a desire reinforced by her mother’s comings and goings, which have Casey feeling extra lonely. When the two seventh graders meet at school, they instantly bond over their sense that they’re each the second-choice child in their families, forming the Second Favorite Daughter’s Club and vowing vengeance against their sisters. Casey’s pain at her mother’s casual attitude toward parenting is deeply sympathetic, as is Santana’s frustration at her parents’ seemingly single-minded focus on Victoria. Both characters, who read as white, are fully formed, with unique flaws and personality traits that allow each to shine in this on-the-nose telling of familial tumult and sibling rivalry by Oakes (The Black Coats). Ages 10–up. (Apr.)