Lanie's big problem in the first book is that her family all have "inside genes" while she has "outdoor genes." She's fascinated by nature and loves being outside, while her family prefers indoor activities. Her older sister is a cellist and spends hours practicing. Her younger sister is afraid of bugs and dislikes dirt. Her mother is an architect, although you can see where Lanie gets some of her out of the box ideas from, because her mom is definitely not your typical architect. And her father is a philosophy professor, but all he really does in her books is cook. I like her family, though the little sister can be annoying, but they're just kinda there. Except one: Aunt Hannah is an ornithology student and she lives in a camper and basically has Lanie's dream life. She's pretty cool.
Lanie's best friend Dakota is off in Indonesia, while her parents study the rainforest there. Dakota's getting to work with orangutans a lot and Lanie is ENVIOUS.
Lanie and Aunt Hannah decide to turn the backyard into a monarch habitat, vegetable and herb garden, and local wildflower garden. This is frowned upon by their new snooty neighbor, who thinks everything has to look just right for her properly values blah blah blah. She also has a cat that worries Lanie and Emily, the little sister who's slowly getting interested in outdoor things.
Aunt Hannah gets Lanie into birdcalls and bird-watching and then leaves for Costa Rica on a surprise trip to fill in for an injured researcher. Lanie is devastated, but spends the rest of the book trying to finish the gardens, learn more about birds, get over being envious of Dakota, enjoy her own accomplishments, get her sister outdoors more, and make peace with the bitchy neighbor.
Lanie's second book takes place during summer and opens with the family going camping, which Lanie's been bugging them to do. Aunt Hannah has returned from Costa Rica and Dakota should be coming home pretty soon.
Lanie and Aunt Hannah dig up the front yard and plan to increase the monarch habitat, but bitchy neighbor complains. She gives Lanie some time to figure out how to make it look nice again or she's going to officially complain.
Lanie's taking a gardening class and meets Nicholas there, who becomes a new friend. He's filled with nature facts, too, and specializes in ladybugs.
At this class, Lanie learns about natural pest deterrents for plants and begins a crusade to help bitchy neighbor not spray pesticides where they might blow onto her family's food or kill the monarchs. She eventually learns aphids are eaten by ladybugs, so she collects a bunch to put on the neighbor's precious roses, and at the end, they finally make peace when they learn about decoy plants that attract aphids to keep them away from the roses. Lanie's going to plant those in her front yard.
Dakota returns home and becomes involved in Lanie's garden festival. I wish she was in the book more. She seems like one of the cooler best friends, but most of her appearances are via emails.
I like Lanie's books. They're really not like any of the past girls' stories. Lanie has the same sort of zest for life and big ideas that Lindsey does, but that's about the closest comparison I can make. I like anything that shows girls being involved in scientific and educational pursuits, not just sports sports sports over and over. The main flaw is what I've already mentioned: that Lanie carries the books mostly by herself with minor help from Aunt Hannah and often faraway Dakota. She doesn't have a strong supporting cast at all. But despite that, these are still an enjoyable read.
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