The Great Mom Swap

At 13, best friends Lorna Markham and Scotti Wheeler have concluded that they were born to the wrong mothers. Scotti's mother wants Scotti to cut out sweets from her diet and be more like Lorna, who's thin and athletic; Lorna's mom wishes Lorna could apply herself to her work like Scotti, who's writing her first novel. Each girl convinces her parents of the need for her to move into the other girl's home, claiming that it will prepare her for life as a foreign exchange student later on. Once the switch is complete, the girls regret it almost instantly. But their parents seem to have adjusted perfectly: the Wheelers are taking Lorna to Hawaii with them; the Markhams have made an appointment for Scotti to show her novel to a publisher. Misunderstandings abound, but the girls are back in their respective rooms by the end of the book, completely persuaded that having the wrong mother is better than having someone else's mother. Haynes's best friends are funny and typically 13, but parts of the book are contrived, and the parents come off as daffy and insensitive. (9-12)