How to use this Page

I was lucky enough to receive this ARC a long time ago. It was irresistible.  I mean, look at that cover! Read that title! I am a person who has never even had a twinkie, but I knew I needed to read this one.  Sometimes a book just gives you a feeling, and this one was calling to me.

Twelve year old Gigi (short for Galileo Galilei) and big sister Didi (short for Delta Dawn) have moved from their trailer park digs in South Carolina to an apartment in Long Island.  One of the only things they have brought with them is their late mother's recipe book which helped the girls win big money in a cooking contest, and Didi is set on giving Gigi a better life that she had.  Gigi is all registered to go to Hill on the Harbor Preparatory School and as long as she keeps following Didi's recipe for success by studying hard and getting top grades, everything will be great.

But here's the thing...Gigi is ready for some changes.   She has even come up with her own recipe for success that doesn't include studying in the library every extra moment of the day.  Instead she wants to find friends her own age, try on a new version of her name, and find ways to have the qualities she knows her late mother would see in her shine.  Gigi (now Leia) is feeling confident about memorizing her locker combination and her schedule and is ready for her first class on her first day when she crashes into Trip who just happens to be the most beautiful boy she's ever seen, and is also in her English class.  All of a sudden this front row girl was sitting in the back row next to Trip.

But change isn't alway smooth or easy, and even though Trip and most of his friends are super nice, mean girl Mace notices Leia's dollar store shoes and less-than-healthy E-Z Cheeze sandwich and makes sure that Leia knows that she is the square peg at school.  Leia can handle the insult about the shoes, but nobody makes fun of Didi's cooking!

Readers will be rooting for Leia as she navigates through all sorts of changes in her life. From the tony world of private school to freshly unearthed family secrets, Leia's life is not following any recipe!  Kat Yeh has written a treat of a middle grade story that will tug on your heart strings and make you smile in equal measure.  The multifaceted characters and rich turns of phrase that had me reading with a twang are only a couple of the reasons I read this book in one big gulp.  The Truth About Twinkie Pie is a book with honesty and heart and I cannot wait to share it with the tweens in my life!

Add a Comment

Lauren is a girl who plans things.  She checks and double checks.  She loves having everything in its place.  So it really comes as no surprise that when it comes to love, she has a plan.  Lauren has come up with her love plan.  This is the summer that she will get Charlie not only to notice her, but fall for her just like she has fallen for him.  She knows from taking lots of multiple choice tests in teen magazines that she and Charlie are indeed soul mates.  She will get him to notice her through her flowcharted Operation Cell Phone, where she has planned each detail of their "chance" encounter.

The problem is Lauren hasn't even left for the beach and there is a wrench thrown into her plans.  Lauren's mom thought it would be fun to invite Chrissy along on vacation to keep only child Lauren company.  Lauren likes Chrissy alright, but she certainly isn't part of her plan.  And the worst part of it is that Lauren sort of told everyone at school that she and Charlie are already an item.What will Chrissy think when she sees the truth?

Lauren need not worry about Chrissy.  It turns out she is super understanding and supportive of Lauren's love plan.

Things start off great.  The girls get along famously, and Charlie is indeed at the beach with his friend Frank.  Lauren thinks this is just perfect because she can hang out with Charlie and Chrissy can hang with Frank.  But Lauren soon learns not only that the best laid plans don't always work out, but that crushing on someone from afar, is indeed different from knowing a person face to face.

This is an easy breezy beach read that gets the desperate tone of first crushes just right.  What I like is that Darling gives Chrissy and Lauren agency, and put it right out there that sometimes the boy with all the looks can be lacking in other areas.  This is a squeaky clean romance that will have tweensters flipping the pages to find out who Lauren will choose.

Display Comments Add a Comment

It's summertime, and there's not much that Gloriana June Hemphill (Glory) looks forward to more than having her 4th of July birthday party at the community pool.  This is the year she'll be turning 12 so she won't have to be supervised by big sister Jesslyn every time that she and Frankie want to go swimming.

But it's the summer of 1964, and Glory's age isn't the only thing that's changing.  First off Jesslyn, who used to play junk poker and talk with Glory in their shared room, isn't really talking anymore.  She's busy dressing up, putting on lipstick and sneaking visits with new boy Robbie at the library.  And then there's Glory's best friend Franklin Cletus Smith (Frankie for short).  Sure he's always been pushed around by his big brother J.T., but now Frankie is seeming to spew the same kind of stupidity as J.T. and his Daddy.  After all, it's Frankie who tells Glory that the pool is closing.  He says he overheard his Daddy talking about it.  He said it has cracks and needs to be fixed.  Glory doesn't see any cracks...

Hanging Moss, Mississippi has to face the fact that just because things have always been one way, doesn't make that way right.  Maybe there shouldn't be a white fountain and a colored fountain.  Maybe the community pool shouldn't only be for white people.  Maybe the library should be open to all.

Augusta Scattergood tells one girl's story about a summer of change in the South.  Glory's world view is pitch perfect as she slowly starts to understand the bigger reasons for the pool closing, and her fellow townspeople's treatment of the Yankees who have come to town.  Glory is a white girl who has grown-up in the white part of town with a black maid employed by her preacher father.  She has all of the spunk and indignation of an 11 year old who can see right and wrong, but has a hard time seeing where she fits into the picture.  This is a great tween read that will get readers thinking about the big issues of social justice as well as the universal changes that come with growing up.

Display Comments Add a Comment

This super cute pink haired girl just about jumped off the galley table at the Lerner Publishing preview during BEA. I wanted to read it, for no other reason than the super cute Nola and her friends on the cover. I wasn't disappointed. (note: the US cover is slightly different from this one...Nola's hair is longer, the title is different and there is a blue wash to the whole thing)

Nola lives home with her uber busy Mom and her cat in the town of Alta Donna. In Nola's words, "This is my hometown, my world, a peaceful and pleasant little paradise. In a word...absolutely boring." (p. 3) Her days are filled with trying to get to school on time, and trying not to be disappointed when her mom shows up late again. All of that is about to change thanks to classmate Damiano.

Nola helps him save face during math one day, and as they walk down the hall together they run into Damiano's sister Ines, who is being *incredibly* rude to a teacher. After Damiano excuses himself to talk to Ines, Nola does a bit of eavesdropping and shorting becomes obsessed with the sibs. Are they spies? Runaways? Witness Protection kids? Add to that the fact that the school librarian has just been attacked, and Nola has herself a full blown mystery to solve.

She starts trailing Damiano to see what she can find, and soon becomes enchanted with Ines' beguiling ways. Nola's bff Pumpkin is a bit worried, and hopes that her friend will be alright.

Just when Nola is starting to get the answers that she originally set out to find, the book comes to a crashing, cliff-hangering stop which may me cry, "Noooo! I need book 2!!!!"

Just the way I like it!

The art has a manga edge, but it's not too much. There is lots of movement in the panels as well, but what makes the book sing are the colours. Incredibly vibrant (in the Magic Trixie vein), just looking at the pages is bound to make readers happy.

Fun, fun, fun!

Display Comments Add a Comment

It's 8th grade year for the girls and changes are afoot. Jess is surprised to learn that she has just received a scholarship to snooty Colonial Academy. Jess could care less about the scholarship...she just wants to stay at Walden Middle School with her friends. Her parents, however, keep talking about opportunities, and college, and want to reach a compromise of having Jess board at the school during the week and come home to help at Half Moon farm on the weekends.

Without Jess at Walden, Emma is a bit sad. She misses Jess, and even though things are warming up with Stewart and she is editor of the paper, she still feels like something is missing. If only her parents would finally say yes to a dog...

Megan's grandmother has moved into the house and Megan finally feels like someone understands her. Gigi is totally into fashion and travel. She is an amazing cook who even uses meat (gasp!) in her dishes. But the closer Megan gets to Gigi, the more annoyed her own mother seems to get.

Among all of the changes, Becca and Cassidy actually have something common. Their mothers seem to be going a bit crazy. Mrs. Chadwick has discovered a whole new her, complete with outrageous outfits, spiky hair, and animal print glasses. Mrs. Sloane-Kincaid is always tired. She's nauseous and napping.

The book club is changing too. The club is reading Daddy-Long-Legs, by Jean Webster, but what is new to the club are the pen-pals. Mrs. Hawthorne has been in touch with her old college friend who has her own mother-daughter book club, and they thought it would be great for the girls to write to each other while reading the same book. Some of the girls aren't too pleased about this...after all, who even writes letters anymore. Texting or emailing would be so much easier. But the moms stand firm. Old fashioned letters with stamps will be sent!

What follows is a story complete with nasty room-mates, sleep-over pranks, road trips, first kisses and secrets kept from friends and mothers alike. Heather Vogel Frederick's latest installment in the series will not disappoint fans of the first two books. The girls are growing in real time, and their 8th grade problems are different form their 6th grade ones. Each character, though somewhat typed, brings something fresh to the table in Dear Pen Pal. Cassidy's growing away from her jock persona and Emma's geek is ascending the social ladder with the help of her girlfriend status. But the characters never lose their souls over it. The changes simply feel true to the tumultuous times of middle schoolers.

I can't wait to see what the book club reads next!

Add a Comment

Mary Rodgers and screen writer Heather Hach team up for this loose companion to Freaky Friday with hilarious results. Hadley is a stressed out middle schooler living in the shadow of her picture perfect sister. Tatum looks like a goddess, is super nice, and seems to have everyone under her spell. Hadley on the other hand, lives for good grades, has her path to the Ivy Leagues all mapped out, and has hair that just hangs there.

Hadley just switched planners to the Super Student Planner Plus and somehow managed to space out and not write in the fact that her oral presentation on To Kill a Mockingbird is due TODAY. Hadley is freaking out so badly that her two best friends Soup and Nan can’t even sympathize. Hadley’s only hope is appealing to her hippie dippy teacher Ms. Pitt’s (call me Carol) granola like nature. Maybe she’ll cut Hadley a break.

Not.

From the title we all knew what was coming, we just didn’t know who. Well this time it’s Hadley and Ms. Pitt who are presto-chango existing in each other’s bodies and desperately trying to find out how to switch back before a) Miss Pitt has her English Chair interview with the School Board and b) Hadley goes to the I Hate Monday dance and hopefully talks to dreamy Zane.

This author combination really works. The dialogue is spot on and laugh-out-loud funny. Even though Hadley is an intense girl and her constant comparing herself with her sister borders on annoying, she never crosses into that territory. Hadley learns that maybe Tatum isn’t quite as perfect as she seems, and perhaps she herself needs to lighten up a bit, and see herself as others do. Ms. Pitt, on the other hand, could take a lesson in time management and realizing that she can’t be the best teacher for everyone.

Fun.

Display Comments Add a Comment

I am a bit of a late-comer when it comes to audio books. Audio is a way of consuming that just seemed too passive to me. After all, I can read more quickly than I can listen. Frequent, long car rides with young children changed my mind, and I found myself listening to some classic children's titles with my girls. When I received my copy of Emma Jean Lazarus Fell in Love at a Random House preview a while back, I tucked it into my purse to bring home.

I read the first title of Emma Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree when I was on the middle grade Cybils judging committee a couple of years ago. I liked Emma Jean just fine, but I certainly wasn't enamoured with her. She was just a bit too quirky for me. Don't get me wrong, we put it in the collection and actively hand sell it to many of our readers, it just wasn't the book for me.

So imagine my surprise and delight upon listening to the second title of Emma Jean Lazarus Fell in Love. This was the secret for me. Emma Jean simply must be read aloud.

The Spring Fling dance is right around the corner, and hormones are all a flutter in Emma Jean's school. This is the dance where the girls ask the boys, and this has Emma Jean looking specifically at Will Keeler like never before. She is pleased when she sees him, and is considering asking him to the dance. Colleen, however, is worried that Will (or more specifically Laura Gilroy who has a huge and obvious crush on Will) is going to laugh at her.

Colleen finds herself over-the-moon when she gets a note from a secret admirer in her locker. She wonders about who it could be, and she actually asks Emma Jean to help her solve the riddle. Colleen is happier than she has been in a long time and if finding joy in the little things, and just feels so much more "Colleen-er".

Can Colleen's and Emma Jean's friendship survive another round of Emma Jean's helping? Who actually wrote that note that ended up in Colleen's locker.

Lauren Tarshis has written a not-too-sweet story about changing friendships, shifting family, crushes and the 7th grade. Mamie Gummer is a suburb reader, and her slight changes in voice when it comes to Emma Jean and Colleen are perfect. Her reading made me like Emma Jean as a girl. This shift has me thinking about the power of audio books and the reader.

If anyone has any audio editions to recommend of tween titles that changed their mind about a book, I'd love to hear them!

Display Comments Add a Comment

I am happily getting into a ritual of biweekly visits to the public library with my daughters. While they are off perusing the picture book shelves, I head on over to fiction to find some more tweeny titles. Hummingbird, by Kimberly Green Angle ended up in my pile this week.

March Anne lives on her family's watermelon farm with her dad, brother Kevin and Grenna. March Anne's mom died when she was quite young, so Grenna has been like a mom to her ever since. Daily pieces of March Anne's life are taken up soaking in Grenna's advice and particular sayings.

Then right in the middle of the watermelon harvest, Grenna collapses in the field. March Anne knows that her life is about to change forever. Even though Grenna comes home, the doctor's words of "irreparable damage" stay with her.

March Anne tries to keep on. She has her friends Meg and Laverne, of course, and there is the daily grind of school to follow. Her Daddy tells her that cooking is now up to her, and with disastrous results, March Anne is feeling a bit more useless than she would like.

Hummingbird is a slow, simmering family story. To be honest, the pace at first made me consider putting this one aside, but I am glad that I kept on. The characters are refreshingly honest and humble, and when the inevitable happens at the end, tears are sure to come. Give this to thoughtful readers who like quiet stories.

Add a Comment