Vivian Lantz's Second Chances

Have any of you had really crappy first days of school? My worst was my first day of high school. My family had just moved from the coastal city where I'd grown up to one of the biggest cities in the state so that my sister could go to a special education school. We had to give up all our companion animals including my beloved ocelot. So I was in this humungous school where I had no friends. Then in an opening assembly the girl sitting next to me said "Hey, runt (I was 4'3") don't go in the bathrooms." She explained that people got seriously beat up. By my afternoon classes I was so desperate to not have an accident I couldn't think of anything else.
But I've got nothing on Vivian, protagonist of Kathryn Ormsbee's Vivian Lantz's Second Chances. All her first days have been disasters. In fifth grade her appendix burst. In fourth grade she was stung by dozens of hornets. Second grade yielded a broken nose. So about to start eighth grade she wonders what will go wrong.
Plenty it seems. Her family's home/antique store floods at an ungodly hour of the morning. On her way into school she trips, spoiling her carefully chosen first day outfit. She discovers that her crush is dating a mean girl. She breaks the aquarium of a teacher's pet fish by mistake, And when she gets her first ever period the other students notice before a teacher tells her.
Her second day couldn't be as bad. Except when she wakes up it's the the first day again and again and again. She's on some kind of time loop—one she wonders if she'll ever escape from.
Middle school angst served up with a touch of magic makes for a purrrfect summer read for the middle grade set.
On a purrrsonal note, on Friday, the second day of demolishing Adam's old bed I almost finished the job. The room was not only much bigger and flooded with light. I was filled with joy and so proud of myself. Sawing required frequent breaks because I was using muscles that probably been hibernating.
A great big shout out goes out to me for solving a problem that's vexed me for years.
Jules Hathaway