New Girl on Salt Flat Road

In this second novel in the Lola Zola series, our main character, the zany 11-year old Lola, finds herself torn between her mother who doesn't want her to grow up too fast and the new girl on the block who is too fast - shoplifting at the mall, hosting lipstick parties and pop-up bikini fashion shows, and flirting with all the boys, including Lola's not-so-secret heartthrob from the first novel, Lola Zola and the Lemonade Crush. Here's an excerpt: "Life on Salt Flat Road was usually dullsville, but today the newcomer's arrival in the city of Mirage caused tweens to pop their heads out of windows. Lola's neck hurt from popping her head out so much. "She looks like a teenage Cleopatra," said Lola, "I bet she dates." The Body God had blessed the middle-school newcomer with curvy hips and dips. All Lola got, however, was a pancake-flat chest. Nothing rocked -- yet. Later on ... "What do you do around here, Lola Zola?" asked pretty Pauline, after introducing herself with a slow wave and triple clang of her gold and black bangles. Was she wearing lip gloss? Yup. Pauline surveyed the sleepy succulents on Mirage's desert street. "Do you talk to the plants?" she asked. "Uh, well." Lola looked at Melanie, her freckled BFF, who giggled and said, "Lo, want to tell her?" Would Lola dare tell the new girl the truth? Actually, Lola did talk to plants.