Many Points of Me

On the eve of her 12th birthday, Georgia Rosenbloom, daughter of a renowned late artist, feels out of sorts. Her art historian mother, a Columbia professor, is busy curating a retrospective of her father’s work at the Met; her lifelong best friend, Theo, has been embarrassing her in front of cool new girl Harper; and she feels lingering resentment that Theo inspired her father’s most famous paintings, an unfinished series of asterisms—unofficial constellations. Georgia, who still misses her dad fiercely two years after his death, struggles to navigate the tension between her father as a towering public art figure and as her dad, who “sang me ‘Moonshadow’ at bedtime.” When she discovers a sketch that suggests that she would have been the subject of his final asterism, Georgia sets out to prove her role in her father’s legacy. Debut author Gertler’s tale of tween soul-searching, threaded with an intriguing art mystery, satisfies, and the sophisticated and privileged New York City art world milieu is depicted with an insider’s eye for detail. Ages 8–12. [em]Agent: Sara Crowe, Pippin Properties. (Jan.) [/em]