Christina the Astonishing

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A coming-of-age novel told from the perspective of the irrepressible Christina, whose encounters with Catholic school nuns, Italian mothers, and small-town Massachusetts will have readers laughing out loud, even when Christina isn't . . . CHRISTINA FALCONE IS A THIRTEEN-YEAR-OLD EIGHTH GRADER at Precious Blood Junior High. She is growing up pazza according to her Italian immigrant mother, Rita, who curses a country that poisons children with chocolate milk and singing mice on television. The nuns at Precious Blood are giving Christina nightmares and facial tics with their daily descriptions of torture and martyrdom. All she wanted as a fourth grader was to become a saint so she could be God's best friend and go straight to heaven and avoid burning in hell for all eternity. At thirteen, though, Christina's nightmares about eyeless martyrs have become dreams of escaping this place where she can see the entire