Portia's Exclusive and Confidential Rules on True Friendship

a middle grade novel

Portia Avatar, Girl Psychoanalytic Detective, is back on the case! When amateur animal rescuer, Misty Longfellow, enlists Portia's help to get to the bottom of why a recently rescued bunny is so entirely blue, Portia unexpectedly gains a new friend but faces drama with her old friend, Amy Clamdigger, in the process. Portia soon discovers that the biggest mystery of all is friendship itself and sets out to get some answers, all while still on the search for more clues about her long lost nowhere-to-be-found father, Patch.

Portia's Ultra Mysterious Double Life

a middle grade novel

Portia Avatar lives in the sleepy tropical Southern California town known as Palmville with her bohemian earth mom, Indigo - a woman with the most positive attitude in the galaxy. She also shares her funky craftsman bungalow with her nervous cat named Frederick, who happens to think he's a dog. The only family member who's missing from Portia's idyllic home life is her long lost father, Patch, whom Portia has never met. Indigo promises to tell her everything she knows about him when Portia turns sixteen, and not a moment sooner.

When an earthquake shakes Palmville, Portia discovers a series of new clues about her father and his possible whereabouts, including a mysterious photograph of him. That's when she becomes Girl Psychoanalytic Detective and begins her search for her missing father. 

Portia's case raises many important questions along the way ... Is Patch really missing? Can Portia call herself a love child? Does cute nerd-boy Webster Holiday actually have a crush on her? Will Indigo's beloved health food restaurant, Contentment, ever re-open again? What monster lurks in the back office of the local junk shop, Trash and Treasures? Will Portia's best friend, Amy Clamdigger, figure out how to win first prize at the “Make Palmville Beautiful Again” picnic? And, just who is the swaggering firefighter spending so much time with her one and only mother?

Throughout the story, Portia's incurable curiosity leads to surprising discoveries about the people in her world... and ultimately about herself.