"But how had that happened? Was everything we had not really ours? And the life we'd led, was none of it real?"

What would happen if your father lost his job? For 13-year-old Irene, this becomes reality and she is forced to leave her posh Manhattan penthouse and live with her parents at her grandfather's farm in the country. At first Irene has a difficult time adjusting to being away from her friends and having her belongings in storage. Eventually she makes friends and learns that living with her grandfather is not as bad as she might have thought.

Everything I Was by Corinne Demas is a book that addresses the realities of the current economy and how a family's life can be changed overnight. I wonder, though, if it will reach its intended audience with the current cover (the version at left is shown on the ARC, on IndieBound.org, and on Corinne Demas' website). When I requested the galley from Net Galley, I had no idea that this was a middle-grade appropriate novel. I asked several students how old the girl on the cover was and no one guessed even close to Irene's age (13). A cover makeover would really improve the appeal of this book. Most teens who pick it up are going to have completely different expectations based upon the cover.

Everything I Was will be published by Lerner in April 2011. Read from Net Galley on my NOOKcolor.