Has your dog ever ran away or have you ever felt that a grown up doesn’t understand you? Well, teenage Addie feels your pain!

“Addie’s Sketchbook: Summer in Wellfleet” by Ruut DeMeo is recommended for tweens and above, but people could bend the rules and read at a younger age. It has some inappropriate language, but it’s not nearly as bad as language some grown ups use.

The book is written from the perspective of 13-year-old Addie, who is obsessed with books, reading and drawing. It’s silly, realistic, mysterious and adventurous; a general crowd pleaser.

 Recently I interviewed a mineral collector, Lauren Megaw, from the Tucson Gem & Mineral Show. She had just returned from a geology work trip in Chihuahua, Mexico.

Megaw said she had a lot of opportunities to go to mineral shows when she was young and see some great rocks and minerals because her father was a geologist. She seriously started collecting minerals when she was six years old. Since then, she has continued collecting minerals. It’s been 22 years! It is surprising that her fun hobby turned into her profession.