Amateau, Gigi. A Certain Strain of Peculiar. 2009. 261p. Candlewick, $16.99. (978-0-7636-3009-6). Gr. 6-8: A Fed up with her classmates’ bullying and her increasing panic attacks, 13-year-old Mary Harold Woods runs away to live with her grandmother where she finds her place while building her muscles, caring for a Black Angus cow, helping wrangle the herd, and protecting a badly damaged girl who pretends she is a horse. Although the grandmother may come across as too understanding and the mother’s romance with the farm manager too convenient, the characters of the young people in the school ring true as they accuse Mary Harold of being a lesbian and she decides to fight back. The issues that she addresses are very real and portrayed in a clear, insightful way.–Nel Ward