Clark, Catherine. Frozen rodeo.

HarperCollins,Tempest. 287p. c2003.0-06-447385-6. $6.99. JS

To quote from the review of the hardcover in KLIATT, January 2003: Fleming (named for Peggy Fleming, by her figure-skating father) is spending the summer before her senior year of high school working at Express-Oh-Yes, serving up coffee to pay back her parents for totaling their car. She dreams of having a car of her own, of getting out of smelly small-town Lindville, and of dating handsome Steve, on whom she has a crush. But there is much to keep Fleming busy meanwhile: she meets a brash new friend in her summer French class, and they both wonder why their teacher never shows up; she has to baby sit her younger siblings, Dorothy, Torvill, and Dean, and accompany her pregnant mother to Lamaze classes; she starts to see a new boy; and she befriends her coworker, Denny, an aspiring songwriter who worships U2. A kamikaze bus driver and an unlikely robber play roles in Fleming's summer, too. She gets angry with her parents for taking her help for granted, but in the end realizes how important her family is to her and agrees to put on a skating performance with her father at the annual Rodeo Roundup Days fair--hence the title. Clark, the author of Truth or Dairy and Wurst Case Scenario, excels at creating warm, witty, and sympathetic female protagonists and at writing fast, funny dialog. Fleming is a charmer, and this is a delightful quick read that will appeal to fans of Meg Cabot's Princess Diaries series. Paula Rohrlick, KLIATT