This set includes all five books of the Carmen Browne series: True Friends, Sweet Honesty, Golden Spirit, Perfect Joy, and Happy Princess.
In True Friends, Carmen Browne is a ten-year-old African-American girl beginning fifth grade. With her family moving to a new city, Carmen is anguished to give up her friends and comfortable home. As her family adapts to a new location, Carmen learns that finding new friends and fitting in is not easy. Part of her doesn't even want to try. Family issues become complicated when Carmen's brother learns he is adopted. Dealing with unpopularity, fitting in, and cultural differences are Carmen's issues in the first book of the Carmen Browne series.
In Sweet Honesty, ten-year-old Carmen settles into her new home in Ettrick, Virginia. It's Christmas and Carmen has a problem: she's bored and conspires against her parents to have a 'free day' at the mall without them. A subplot in the story involves adopted brother, Clay, as he continues to wonder about his real parents, and Carmen decides to help him dig into his past. Will her parents find out about their schemes?
In Golden Spirit, Carmen meets new challenges and faces serious issues such as domestic violence and her own tendency toward bossiness. This series focuses on issues faced by many preteen girls and teaches inspiring lessons about dealing with gossip, self-esteem, and body image.
In Perfect Joy, the path to joy is paved with adversity as Carmen Browne discovers in the fourth book in the series from best-selling author, Stephanie Perry Moore. Perfect Joy captures the tumultuous changes every sixth-grade girl faces—new friendships, fickle popularity, and adolescent jealousy—with the added fears of waiting as her mother is tested for breast cancer. Carmen truly is an inspiring heroine, rising above her mistakes and hertrials, using her trademark spunk and admirable conviction—she finds the perfect joy that comes only from God.
In Happy Princess, Carmen Browne, growing up in a family of five as an energetic preteen, is determined to live her life to please God. So far we followed Carmen as she began to face both major and minor life issues such as an unexpected family move, her big brother's search for his birth family, and the tragedy of domestic violence. As she learns to trust God to work all things out for good, Carmen learns a lot about herself, too: being popular doesn't guarantee you true friends, being honest up front saves a lot of hurt, and sometimes self-confidence is just bossiness in disguise. Now in this fifth and final volume of the popular series, Carmen begins to face the uncharted waters of adolescence. She discovers that her changing moods and growing body bring a brand new set of challenges to her life.