102 Days of Lying About Lauren

Having been abandoned by her mother at America’s most famous amusement park, in Florida, tall-for-her-age 12-year-old Lauren “Mouse” Suszek hides in plain sight by posing as a 16-year-old park employee. She manages the deception admirably for the titular 102 days, living at the top of the Haunted House of Horrors and logging her self-imposed “Rules to Live By” and “Lies Told.” She even befriends Tanner, a park employee who’s also son to the park’s CEO, and whose sister bears a striking resemblance to Mouse. But Mouse’s luck changes quickly when Cat, a seventh grader who uses a cane, arrives and claims to be Mouse’s cousin just as a tornado forces everyone in the park to take shelter. Huddled in an unstable building, Mouse struggles to confront her grief and anger alongside a now-injured Tanner, who is navigating his own tumultuous family dynamic, and suspicious but concerned Cat. Industrious Mouse’s colloquial first-person voice layers her feelings about her circumstances with the logistics around her solo survival, resulting in a moving debut from Jortner that retains a sense of adventure while lightly exploring an experience of abandonment. Protagonists cue as white; the secondary cast is racially diverse. Ages 8–12. Agent: Rena Rossner, Deborah Harris Agency. (June)