Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband she's a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle she's a disgrace; to design mavens she's a revolutionary architect and to 15-year-old Bee she is a best friend and simply Mom. Then Bernadette disappears. It began when Bee aced her report card and claimed her promised reward: a family trip to Antarctica…
Thirteen-year-olds Madeleine, Theo, and Lulu, fourteen-year-old Garrison, and ten-year-old new "contestant" Hyacinth, must face their phobias and join forces to learn who is stealing wigs and pageant trophies from the School of Fear.
Everyone's afraid of something. (Cover)
Christina Goering, eccentric and adventurous, and Frieda Copperfield, anxious but enterprising, are two serious ladies who want to live outside of themselves. Old friends, each will take a surprising path in search of salvation: during a visit to Panama, Mrs. Copperfield abandons her husband, finding solace in a relationship with a teenage prostitute; while Miss Goering, a wealthy spinster, pur…