ALA Booklist (Mon Feb 06 00:00:00 CST 2023)

In recent years the use of a diary format has become familiar, as has first-person voice: usually female, often belligerent, and inevitably amusing. This time it's British 11-year-old Cherry Waterton who is keeping a diary--not because she wants to, but because a teacher tells her it will clear out her cupboard. Cherry's cupboard is rather full these days: she's angry about her mother's marriage to picture-book illustrator Roland Butter and disgusted that they are having a baby. Roly tries to be nice, pushing rebus letters under Cherry's door, but Mrs. Butter is writing her own letters to a friend, detailing how miserable Cherry's behavior is making her. It's this triumvirate of writings that elevates the book above other middle-grade problem novels. Cherry's diary makes an interesting counterpoint to Roly's sweet, hopeful messages and Mrs. Butter's letters, which show her as suprisingly unaware and often unsupportive of her daughter. Readers, especially those who have experienced divorce and remarriage, will see something of themselves in Cherry, but parental fears and feelings will come more into focus as well.

Horn Book (Mon Feb 06 00:00:00 CST 2023)

Cherry doesn't like her new stepfather, although her best friend Skinny Melon thinks he's nice. Cherry's journal entries show her adolescent angst as she struggles to accept her parents' divorce and her stepfather. Interspersed with Cherry's writings are rebus notes from her stepfather and her mother's letters to a friend. The letters feel out of place and make the mother seem too unsympathetic in this otherwise entertaining novel.

Kirkus Reviews

A brash 11-year-old chronicles family changes in this brightly chatty import from the author of The Children Next Door (1996). In the diary that she starts at the urging of her English teacher, Cherry records: her impressions of each day's school lunch ("Pond scum and glop pie, and a dollop of cold vomit"); the troubles of her best friend, Melanie Skinner (see title), whose widowed mother has a suitor dubbed "weird Melvin"; and, most important, the persistent campaign of her dorky new stepfather, a children's-book illustrator (with the unfortunate name of Roland Butter), to win her over. Ure saddles Cherry with a set of particularly insensitive divorced parents, which makes sweet, silly, stoutly loyal Roland all the more appealing as he slips friendly notes written in rebuses under her door, consistently takes her side in spats with her mother, and finally breaks down her last-ditch defense by finding a puppy for her that doesn't trigger his allergies. Spot illustrations add to the droll humor and offer the challenge of deciphering Roland's notes. Readers may feel underestimated when Cherry recopies and translates all of them near the end, but this self-assured young narrator keeps things hopping, and her ultimate change of heart is well earned. (Fiction. 10-12)

School Library Journal (Mon Feb 06 00:00:00 CST 2023)

Gr 3-6-Cherry Waterton is miserable. She hates her new stepfather, a skinny, bearded man who illustrates children's books for a living and is always trying to win her over by slipping silly coded messages under her door. She is especially upset when his allergies cause her mom to break her promise to buy a dog. Worst of all, her mother suddenly announces that she is expecting a baby. Cherry misses her dad, who lives miles from London with his new wife and has a job that keeps him busy. She complains about her problems to her best friend, Melanie, aka Skinny Melon, but Melanie thinks that Cherry is lucky to have someone like Slimey Roland for a stepfather. The story is told through Cherry's diary entries and sketches, supplemented by Roland's notes and occasional letters written by her mother to a friend in Texas. Ure does a wonderful job of capturing the misunderstandings that come between the 11-year-old and her mother, Roland's well-intentioned attempts to win the love of his new stepdaughter, and Cherry's growing appreciation for her quirky and compassionate stepdad. Although some of the British words may make Roland's rebus messages difficult to decipher, they are eventually explained. The title is a little misleading, since the story focuses more on Cherry's relationship with Roland than on her friendship with Skinny Melon. A wonderfully entertaining, humorous, and thoughtful novel.-Ashley Larsen, Woodside Library, CA Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.