With the  humor and  poignancy of Joan Bauer and Lynda Mullaly Hunt, this story reminds readers that they have a right to a voice, that it's okay to say how you feel, and that some leftovers are absolutely delicious!   Fizzy is a good Southern girl who just wants to be perfect. And win the Southern Living cook-off . The being perfect part is hard though, since her parents’ divorced and everything in her life has changed. Wary of her too-perfect stepmom and her mom’s neat-freak, dismissive boyfriend, she’s often angry or upset and feels like a guest in both homes. She tells herself to face facts: She’s a “leftover” kid from a marriage that her parents want to forget. But she has to keep all of that to herself, because a good Southern girl never yells, or throws fits, or says anything that might hurt other people’s feelings—instead she throws her shoulders back, says yes ma’am, and tries to do better. So Fizzy tries her best, but it’s hard to stay quiet when her family keeps getting more complicated. Fortunately, the Southern Living cook-off gives her a welcome distraction, as do her new friends Miyoko and Zach, who have parent issues of their own. "Payne has written a perfect story for middle-graders. It hits a lot of things kids worry about most. The voice of Fizzy in this first-person narrative is pitch perfect. This may capture the experience of children of divorce better than any book out there and deserves readership beyond a middle-grade audience. A winner!" - San Francisco Book Review "There are precious few books in the world that feel blindingly, achingly, beautifully real. This is one of them."- Compass Book Ratings " The Thing About Leftovers is an important addition to the canon of books having to do with divorce and loss. It gives kids in more traditional environments a heroine to look up to. And Fizzy is sweet enough, lovable enough, and tough enough to be that heroine."- Common Sense Media "This story made me laugh, cry, and think. The writing was captivating . . ."- YA Lit Rumblings Why I Wrote  The Thing About Leftovers    "Just the word  families  made me sick with longing," says Fizzy Russo, protagonist of  The Thing About Leftovers , a novel about navigating divorce and blended families, written by C. C. Payne and published by Nancy Paulsen Books, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers. When asked why she wrote  The Thing About Leftovers , this is what Payne said:   First, I grew up in blended families, so I know that even under the best circumstances, when everybody's trying their hardest, it can be difficult--for every family member.    I'm not alone. I've read that more than 50% of marriages end in divorce, while 80% of divorced parents remarry within two years. So millions of people are living in blended families. Some of those people are kids. And some of those kids feel alone, scared, rejected, worthless, unloved and/or unlovable. Most of them can't see past today. I wrote the book to let those kids know that they aren't alone; they aren't worthless or unlovable, and that it WILL   get better.   I also wrote hoping the book might inspire honest conversation between primary readers (kids) and secondary readers (parents and stepparents).Sometimes, I think our fears seem so monstrously big and scary that we're afraid to even go near the box we've stuffed them into, much less open it, let those fears out, take a good hard look at them, and at what's behind them. That makes articulating and discussing those fears--and laying them to rest--nearly impossible. But Fizzy and her family have done that. And in sharing and discussing this book, I hope other families are able to do that, too.   And finally, I know what a huge, lifelong impact a special teacher or librarian can have on a student; I hope this book helps them to see some of these "leftover" kids more clearly and have an even greater impact on them. For a few of these kids, a teacher or librarian may be the only adult who seems to care and is consistently investing in them. That teacher or librarian has the power to change everything, from the way they feel about school to the way they feel about themselves, their potential, and their future.   All that said, I don't want to give the impression that  The Thing About Leftovers  is a book that was written with a message in big, neon lights, because it isn't. I let Fizzy tell her story honestly, the way she would tell it to her best, most trusted friend, if they were holed up in her bedroom late at night, sharing secrets--and a tub of ice cream. Fizzy doesn't minimize or gloss over the hard stuff, but she does share her truth with a lot of hope and humor.    What's interesting about her story, although Fizzy doesn't realize it, is that even though the characters are all different and they go about it in different ways, ultimately they all want exactly the same things--the same things we  all  want: love, belonging,family.   C. C. Payne is the ever hopeful, humorous,