Cat Garcia, Aster Douglas, Ofelia Castillo, and Lane DeSanti find common cause as social activists when they join forces to protest the use of a hat with rare bird feathers in a local girls’ club called the Floras. It’s a cause they take on after lonely, wealthy Lane invites the other three to her tree house and they form a club of their own. Their decision to become social activists grows out of disparate goals. Cuban American Cat is a bird-lover facing family pressure to compete to become Miss Flora; aspiring journalist Ofelia, also Cuban American, is looking for a great story for a New York journalism camp application— assuming her parents will let her go that far from home; Aster is trying to help her grandfather research whether the famous DiSanti Orchards Winter Sun orange was actually brought to Florida by their Bahamian ancestors; and Lane, white, staying with her Florida grandmother following her parents’ divorce, is looking for connection. Exceptional characterizations, shifting points of view and a marvelously drawn Florida setting ground a story that sees the girls forming a bond of friendship that transcends their activism, although these four diverse kids have realistic discussions about both race and class in a book that blends the old-fashioned feel of a caper with contemporary sensibilities. (Ages 9–12)