It's a pivotal year for Pénélope, facing her stepfamily, a new high school, and unfamiliar feelings.

Pénélope has never mourned the happy childhood she had before her parents' divorce. For four years now, she's been avoiding her dad as much as she can—he's made a new life for himself that she hates. In fact, she avoids everyone, for fear of being disappointed. She just tries to keep her head down and hide behind her caustic wit.
When her ethnologist mother announces she's leading for Papua New Guinea for a year, and she'll have to live with her father, Pénélope goes on red alert, withdrawing into her shell and battening down for the oncoming storm: a fawning father, a tyrannical stepmother, an unbearable half-sister, and a new high school where she'll be the new kid!