The Girl Scouts' Good Turn

At Miss Allen's Boarding School, sophomore Marjorie Wilkinson has mastered the art of belonging. But belonging is easier when you're not the one on the outside looking in. When fresh-faced Alice Endicott arrives trembling with homesickness, and when Frieda, the girl with a shadowed past, walks through the doors with the weight of everyone else's judgment, Marjorie faces the true test of leadership: can she make room for those who don't yet deserve trust? The Girl Scouts framework provides the structure, but it's Marjorie's stubborn belief in the transformative power of kindness that drives this story. The early scenes sparkle with the excitement of planning a reception for the freshmen, yet beneath the social machinations lies something quieter and more tender, the raw loneliness of being new, the bravery it takes to reach out when you're not sure you'll be welcomed back. Lavell writes with affection for the complexities of adolescent friendship: the way cliques harden hearts, the way a single act of inclusion can change everything, the way being good feels risky when you're young and desperate to fit in. For readers who devoured Anne of Green Gables, here is that same warmth, that same earnest hope that people can change and that kindness, even when it costs you, is never wasted.