For Ages
10 to 99

"FUNNY! I'm officially jealous."--Gordon Korman, author of ONE FALSE NOTE

Is playing blackjack in the school cafeteria that bad? Samara Brooks doesn't think so. She isn't out to hurt anybody. She just wants to create some drama. And she does. Drama . . . and trouble.

When the principal threatens to call her parents, Samara proposes a way to save herself. She'll prove she's not a bad person by conducting a scientific experiment to show she has the same DNA as one of the friendliest girls in school: class president Lily Frederick.   But then Nathan Weiss—a kid obsessed with UFOs and mysterious codes, gets involved. And things get really weird. . . .

"If you like your mystery with a side of science and some delightful snark, you're in the right place," says New York Times bestselling author Libba Bray. And Leslie Margolis, author of Girls Acting Catty and Boys Are Dogs says, "Hilarious, wacky and charming."

An Excerpt fromThat's Life, Samara Brooks

Our Common Language

Before I get beyond the basic stuff you need to know about me--my name (Samara Brooks), my age (thirteen), my hair (black), my weight (forget it), that heinous mole next to my nose--there is one thing I'd like you to know about a certain theory of the universe. The theory goes: If humans ever come into contact with an alien intelligence, our common language will be math.

Say a UFO lands and a strange creature walks out. Odds are that we won't be able to welcome it with a big "Hi!" The creature might not even speak. It might just snort, or gesture with whatever limbs it may have, or try to beam its thoughts telepathically. So we will have to find a way to break the ice. And almost every Nobel Prize-winning scientist out there believes that math is the only natural extraterrestrial icebreaker. In short: Once we figure out a way to count to five with, say, a fire-breathing land squid, pleasant chitchat is sure to follow. "Sweetie, I'm so…