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Romance of the Snob Squad
by Julie Anne Peters
1999; 2010 | 176 pages | Little, Brown | Middle Grade (Ages 9-12)
This second Snob Squad book picks up right where the first one left off, rejoining Prairie, Max, Lydia, and narrator, Jenny Solano at Montrose Middle School. This time around, the girls are dealing with two main problems - their science fair project, which hinges on the capabilities of a rat that keeps getting fatter and fatter without explanation, and the upcoming Spring Dance, to which Prairie wants to be asked by geeky Hugh Torkerson. While Jenny tries to lead the group in the best direction, she also continues to suffer at home, where her parents have forced the whole family into therapy, even though they still fight constantly themselves.
This book is very similar to the first in style and subject matter, but unfortunately, I don't think it holds up as well. The girls' unique personalities and Jenny's cynical outlook on life continue to be the great strength of this series, but the events of this book, from the rat in a maze science experiment to Lydia's efforts to get Prairie a date, were nothing new, and seemed like they were borrowed from a lot of other books of this same type. The humor is strong, though, and with the exception of the final moments of the book where things are suddenly a bit too tidy, Jenny's dysfunctional family is very realistic and will provide comfort and perspective to kids who have families going through similar difficulties.
All in all, a quick, funny read, with recognizable tween problems, and a nice break from some of the more sugary-sweet voices in middle grade contemporary fiction. If you're only going to read one book in this series, stick with the first one, but this second one is worth reading if you're already hooked on the Snob Squad.
Secrets of the Cicada Summer
by Andrea Beaty
2010 | 176 pages | Amulet Books | Middle Grade (Ages 9-12)
This book was originally published in 2008 as
Cicada Summer. In 2010, it was given a new title and cover and released a second time.
Lily hasn't spoken in two years, since the death of her brother, Pete. Everyone in town, including her father and Fern, the kind, elderly woman who works at the general store, believes that she is brain damaged, and she is careful to maintain this image. When no one's looking, though, Lily is an avid reader of Nancy Drew mysteries, and a keen observer of what's going on around her. When Tinny Bridges, Fern's grandniece, comes to town, she, too is very observant and soon learns that Lily is not what she seems. Tinny frames Lily for stealing from the general store, which creates enmity between the two girls, but when Tinny finds herself in serious danger, it is Lily who must come to her rescue, even if it means breaking her silence and the secret promise that led to it.
This is a quick read, but there's a lot of emotion packed into it. Lily's loss and grief, Tinny's dishonesty and fear, and the reactions of different people in town to both of these girls are what drives the story. It's been marketed as a mystery, but I think that's a bit of a simplification. There are mysterious elements here, but this story is much more than a who-dun-it. It's the journey from sorrow to hope, and a portrait of the tragedies and difficulties than can rattle small-town communities.
Secrets of the Cicada Summer would make an excellent read-alike for
Because of Winn-Dixie, or
The Higher Power of Lucky, which both also explore small town living as well as different ways of coping with and overcoming loss of a loved one. The story is short, but Lily is an intriguing character, and fourth- and fifth-grade girls, especially, will relate to her and want to see how things turn out for her.
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on 4/27/2011
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Mission (Un)popular
by Anna Humphrey
2011 | 416 pages | Disney- Hyperion | Young Adult (Ages 10-14)
*Reviewed from an e-ARC received from NetGalley.
Mission (Un)popular by Anna Humphrey is the story of Margot Button, a twelve-year-old Canadian-Indian seventh grader living with her tarot-card reading mother, her stepfather Bald Boring Bryan, and identical triplet half-sisters who are two years old. At the start of the book, Margot's best friend, Erika, learns that she is being sent to Catholic school, and Margot is forced to face the first day of seventh grade alone. Desperate for friendship, she links up with a new girl named Em, who is from New York City and the daughter of a soap opera actress. She also claims to be a model, and makes it her personal mission to make Margot popular. At first, it seems like no big deal. Em teaches Margot how to dress, and encourages her to talk to her crush, Gorgeous George. But as time goes on, Em becomes more and more daring, and Margot gets pulled into schemes that include ignoring Erika, torturing Sarah J., the ringleader of the popular group, sneaking out of the house, and eventually getting seriously injured. Then Margot starts to wonder whether Em has been completely truthful about who she is, and whether she can even be trusted.
This book has everything a tween reader could want - a mysterious, slightly dangerous friend, comeuppance for a nasty bully, romance with cute boys, and honest commentary on family conflicts. The book starts off a bit slow, and gives us a ton of backstory, but once it gets into the main action, the pacing is perfect, and the reader is kept in a steady sense of suspense as the truth about Em slowly and deliciously unfolds. Margot's Indian culture, which she inherits from her dad, isn't really the central focus of the book, but there are still enough references to her race to strongly establish her identity as a character. A few weeks ago, one of the list-servs I follow mentioned a need for more books featuring characters of color that are not explicitly about racial issues, and
Mission (Un)popular definitely fits that bill.
There are a lot of books about middle school out there, but this is one of the few I've read that so perfectly bridges the gap between middle grade and YA. The book isn't as explicit as some of the YA books being written for older teens, but it's also more sophisticated than a lot of school stories and friendship stories written for third through sixth graders. Fans of Lisi Harrison's
Clique series, and Lauren Myracle's
Eleven,
Twelve,
Thirteen, and
Thirteen Plus One, will also enjoy Margot's tumultuous seventh grade year. The events of
Mission (Un)popular are far more dramatic than the lives of most seventh-graders I have known, but I think the drama is exactly what will appeal to that age group.
I was surprised by how much I truly enjoyed this book, and I hope to read more from Anna Humphrey in the future. Visit the author's website and blog at
www.annahumphrey.com.
Mission (Un)popular will be published on June 14, 2011.
Summer Camp Secrets: Pranked
by Katy Grant
2008 | 240 pages | Middle Grade (Ages 9-12)
I'm a sucker for a good series, and just in time for the warm weather, I have discovered Katy Grant's Summer Camp Secrets. The series takes place at Camp Pine Haven, an all girls camp in North Carolina. Each book is from the point of view of a different "Middler" - that is, a camper who is neither a Junior nor a Senior but somewhere in between.
The narrator of
Pranked, is 12-year-old Kelly Hedges, a first-time camper. Though she starts out nervous and shy, Kelly quickly becomes friends with the loudest and most popular girls in her cabin, Reb and Jennifer, better known as the Evil Twins. They welcome Kelly into the fold and start using a new name - The Terrible Triplets. Together, Reb, Jennifer, and Kelly wreak havoc on the camp, and especially on their cabin-mate, mild-mannered Melissa.
Kelly's cruelty starts out on a small scale, with just a few offhand comments here and there to impress her new friends, but as the summer wears on, it escalates. Though she knows what she's doing is wrong, Kelly makes excuses for her behavior, and Reb's friendship and acceptance become more important to her than anything else. Will Kelly draw the line when Reb takes things too far? Will Reb forgive her if she decides not to go along with her schemes?
This book explores all the intricacies of early adolescent friendship, and accurately portrays the layers and nuances to the way girls treat each other. Kelly makes some really insightful observations about the randomness of popularity, and how relieved a girl is when the powerful mean girl chooses her as a friend and not a victim. Many tween books focus on bullying and peer pressure, but this one felt more realistic than many others I have read, because it showed the issue from both sides. Reb, Jennifer, and Kelly all act as bullies in this book, but they are many other things as well. The fact that Katy Grant never pigeonholes her characters is what sets this book apart from others in its genre.
This is the perfect book for girls dealing with difficult friendship drama, and also a great summer beach read. Unlike many other series that churn out mediocre book after mediocre book just to fill the shelves, this looks like it will be a well-written, positive, valuable, and realistic series for preteens.
I'll be reviewing the rest of the Summer Camp Secrets books on Saturdays for the next few weeks - next up is Volume 2,
Acting Out.
It's National Poetry Month! I'm celebrating by linking to a favorite poem at the end of every review I post in April.
Today's poem is Love at First Sight by Wislawa Szymborska.
Journey to an 800 Number
by E.L. Konigsburg
1982, 1999, 2008 | 160 pages | Aladdin | Middle Grade (Ages 9-12)
E.L. Konigsburg is one strange lady. I've read enough of her books by now to know to expect some weirdness, but I think
Journey to an 800 Number is by far her most unusual book. And also possibly one of the best.
Rainbow Maximillian Stubbs (sometimes called Bo, and sometimes called Max) normally lives with his mother, but she has just married a rich man named F. Hugo Malatesta the First and is on her honeymoon. Bo is therefore sent to travel with his dad, who roams the country selling rides on his camel Ahmed at fairs and conventions. While on the road, Bo clings to his jacket, which bears the crest of the fancy school he will attend in the Fall on his new stepfather's dime, using it as a testament to his brains and status in the world. As the days go by, however, his eyes are opened to the rest of the world, and he starts to make connections with people he previously would have seen as beneath him.
In particular, Bo connects with a girl named Sabrina, who goes to various conventions with her mother under assumed names. Sabrina collects information about freaks and is obsessed with the idea that every normal person pretends on a regular basis, while only freaks can be themselves all the time. The entire book is an exploration of identity and the various masks people wear to conceal who they truly are, or to blend in among those they would choose to befriend.
This is a really sophisticated children's book, and the only books I can think to compare it to are adult books. (Flannery O'Connor is the main author who came to my mind. I also kept thinking about
Fight Club.) I don't even know who I'd recommend this book to. It's as old as I am, and thanks to references to parents who were hippies, parts of it are dated, and some of the slang didn't even really make sense to me. The main character also acts much older than his intended age, to the point of making very adult observations about the world around him. I don't think kids would necessarily see themselves in this story, or even know how to approach it.
The writing is typical Konigsburg, though. It has this certain attitude about it, and it's filled with these little throwaway lines that are actually quite brilliant insights about life. I have no idea where she gets these strange ideas for characters and settings, but I'm glad she has them, and that she writes them down. I'm not sure who the audience would be for a book like this now, but despite all its strangeness, I really liked it, and I'd be really curious to hear other opinions.
This is the fourth review in my E.L. Konigsburg series. The previous three are:
About the B'nai Bagels,
Altogether, One at a Time, and
Father's Arcane Daughter. The series will conclude next weekend with my review of
Throwing Shadows.
0 Comments on E.L. Konigsburg Review #4: Journey to an 800 Number as of 1/1/1900
The Great Wall of Lucy Wu
by Wendy Wan-Long Shang
January 2011 | 320 pages | Scholastic | Middle Grade (Ages 9-12)
Twelve-year-old Lucy Wu has big plans for 6th grade. She and her friend Madison will be basketball stars, and with her older sister, Regina heading to college, Lucy will have her own room. These plans are quickly foiled, however, when her father returns from a trip to China with Yi Po, the long-lost sister of Lucy's deceased grandmother. Yi Po will live with the family until Christmas - right in Lucy's bedroom. Lucy resents all the changes this will bring into the household, and immediately sets up a wall between her side of the room and Yi Po's, absolutely refusing to cross it for any reason.
Her parents see this as a wonderful learning opportunity, however, and they decide to send Lucy to Chinese school instead of basketball practice. Lucy, who has little interest in Chinese culture or language sees this as a terrible personal affront, and complains about how unfair her family is being. Madison, however, is fascinated by Yi Po, and Kenny, Lucy's brother, also seems sympathetic, especially after studying the Chinese cultural revolution and learning all that Yi Po has lived through. Lucy really tries to ignore Yi Po and to actively dislike her, but after a few Chinese lessons, and an altercation with a bully at school, she slowly comes to know and appreciate the quiet strength of her grandmother's sister.
Lucy is a really relatable tween protagonist who shares the emotions and experiences of many 12 year old girls. She deals with bullies, annoying peers, a secret crush, parents who seemingly don't understand her, competing priorities and questions of identity. And she does all of this without once becoming a stereotype. Lucy's not one of the mean girls or the popular girls, but she's also not a nerd. She's not even a jock though she's interested in sports. She's a very real and well-developed character whose journey toward accepting and understanding her Chinese background is just as much a learning experience for the reader as it is for her.
I liked so many things about this book. Wendy Wan-Long Shang really captures the essence of being 12 years old, and also draws a wonderful portrait of a Chinese-American family. I loved all the Chinese language used in the book - I can't recall seeing that in many children's books. If anything, we usually get a handful of Spanish or French words. I also learned a history lesson, almost without realizing I was learning anything! Shang has created a story that is about being Chinese, but is also about growing in self-knowledge and looking beyond ourselves to learn where we come from and how we've gotten to where we are.
Just wonderful. Definitely a recommended read!
It's National Poetry Month! I'm celebrating by linking to a favorite poem at the end of every review I post in April.
Today's poem is Paul Revere's Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The Last Little Blue Envelope by Maureen Johnson is the sequel to her 2006 novel,
13 Little Blue Envelopes. If you have not read the first book and do not want to be spoiled, read no further! I can't properly set up the second book without spoiling the ending of the first.
Still here?
Okay, on with the review!
In
13 Little Blue Envelopes, Ginny Blackstone received a set of blue envelopes, a gift from her deceased aunt who was an eccentric artist. The letters sent her on a tour/scavenger hunt around Europe, wherein she got to know her aunt, and herself, a whole lot better. At the end of the book, Ginny lost the backpack that contained her aunt's final letter, and was forced to return home without ever knowing what became of it.
The Last Little Blue Envelope, which will be published on April 26th, tells us the fate of this envelope.
It's December, and Ginny is struggling with her college admissions essay, wondering what she should say and how she should say it. In the midst of this, she receives a mysterious email from someone named Oliver Davies, whose message includes an image of part of a letter. Ginny immediately recognizes the handwriting as Aunt Peg's and decides, instantly, that she must return to England and finish the quest she began over the summer. When she arrives, though, some unexpected things happen. For one, Oliver won't hand over Ginny's letter. It contains instructions for finding Aunt Peg's final piece of art, and Oliver wants a cut of the profits that will come from selling it. And on top of that, when Ginny drops in on Keith, he seems distant, and though he introduces a girl named Ellis as his roommate's girlfriend, Ginny suspects there may be something he's not telling her.
Things become more awkward when Keith and Ellis insist on accompanying Ginny and Oliver on their quest to track down the three pieces of Aunt Peg's artwork. The four characters embark on a European road trip, and follow Aunt Peg's final instructions to her niece.
Maureen Johnson has a fantastic sense of humor, as evidenced by her
daily activity on Twitter, and that comes through so strongly in this book. She has a really unique writer's voice, and so many of the lines in this book are thoroughly quotable. She also has a great talent for creating intriguing characters. So many of Oliver's quirks - that he can do card tricks and recite the entire first chapter of Harry Potter - were just so interesting, and they made me want to like him, even when I knew I wasn't really supposed to. I was also really impressed by how well Johnson writes in the third person limited perspective. I felt so close to Ginny's thoughts, I constantly forgot I was in the third person, and felt like I was experiencing every little twist and turn on the trip firsthand.
The ending did feel just a bit too easy for me, after everything we have to go through to get there, but though it felt neat, I wouldn't call it predictable. I was always one step behind Ginny throughout the book, and didn't guess at the decisions she would make in the end until they had been made. So while the ending may have been slightly too perfect, it was very fitting, somehow, anyway.
This was a really enjoyable read, and very well written. It reminded me a lot of Ally Carter's books, with the suspense, and the suspicious nature of Oliver's character. It also compares well to John Green's
Paper Towns and
An Abundance of Katherines, which both feature road trips, as well as
Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins, which is about an American girl's adventures in France. I'm a fan of everything Maureen Johnson writes, and
The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright was originally published in 1941, and is the first book in The Melendy Quartet. The Melendy children - Mona, age 13, Rush, age 12, Miranda (Randy), age 10, and Oliver, age 6, live with their widower father, and a housekeeper named Cuffy, who serves as their surrogate mother.
In this book, the kids, led by Randy, decide to pool their allowances each week, to allow one member of the family to spend Saturday doing something he or she loves outside of the house, and without any supervision. They form a club dedicated to this purpose, and name it the Independent Saturday Afternoon Adventure Club, or I.S.A.A.C. Each chapter of the book covers a different Saturday, as the reader follows each child to his or her chosen activity.
The concept of this book is wonderful, and it's what grabbed my attention in the first place. But a good portion of it was spoiled for me because adults kept stealing the spotlight! At least two of the chapters digress into long-winded stories told by secondary characters the kids meet on their adventures, thus robbing me of the enjoyment of seeing kids on their own in the streets of New York City, something that would be just plain unsafe nowadays. I wished so much that the kids had actually been more independent.
For the most part, I enjoyed the old-fashioned feeling of this book, and the writing style really appealed to me. The only thing that bothered me was that Elizabeth Enright was very fond of similes and metaphors, and after a while, I felt like I was tripping over them. I also thought they reminded me of the author's presence too often. Figures of speech cropped up no matter whose point of view we were supposed to be in, and they all sounded like they came from the same voice.
The tail-end of the book is really great, though. Oliver gets a chance to have his own Saturday, and being in his six-year-old mind is a definite treat. I thought his story was the only one that fully lived up to the spirit of I.S.A.A.C.
Several people have said that
The Four Story Mistake is their favorite Melendy book, so I'm moving onto that one next, and I hope it focuses more on the kids, and less on these strange encounters with grown-ups. I plan to review that one, as well as
Then There Were Five and
Spiderweb for Two.
It's National Poetry Month! I'm celebrating by linking to a favorite poem at the end of every review I post in April.
Today's poem is Selecting a Reader by Ted Kooser.
Altogether, One at a Time, a slim book containing four short stories, was originally published in 1971. Each story tells of a particular incident that changes the life of the main character in a profound way.
In "Inviting Jason," the main character's mother forces him to invite a kid he hates to his birthday party. "The Night of the Leonids" is about a boy and his grandmother whose opportunity to see a star formation that only occurs every thirty-three and a third years is thwarted by cloudy weather. "Camp Fat" is the story of a girl who goes to camp to lose weight and encounters a mysterious counselor who comes to her bedside each night with encouragement and advice. In "Momma at the Pearly Gates," a young girl relates the story of how her mother overcame racism in her public elementary school.
Though each story is thematically different, they do share some stylistic similarities. Each story begins in the midst of the action, with not much build-up, and no wasted words. I felt like I got to know the characters instantly, which really paid off when each story reached its pivotal moment. I was also really impressed at the subtle differences between the four main characters' voices. Some authors' characters all sound the same, but these truly sounded like four different people, with four distinct personalities.
Short stories are not very popular among children, but the "Camp Fat" story, especially, has a creepiness to it that will be appealing to
Goosebumps fans, and kids who like scary stuff. I actually think any of the stories with the possible exception of the last one, still felt fairly contemporary and could still appeal to a contemporary audience. I also think this book would have come in really handy when I was taking creative writing classes. These are very well-written short stories, and when I do start writing again, I might revisit this book for a refresher.
This is my second post in my series of E.L. Konigsburg reviews. The previous post, on
About the B'nai Bagels, can be found
here.
It's National Poetry Month! I'm celebrating by linking to a favorite poem at the end of every review I post in April.
My usual weekly post, Weekly Story Time Wrap-Up was getting really huge and unwieldy, so I've moved my story time posts to a new blog dedicated just to library programs that I perform. The new blog is Story Time Secrets. I invite you to follow me there if you're interested in reading outlines of my weekly story times.
Now on to today's review!
The Rainbow Magic books by Daisy Meadows are a popular series of chapter books about fairies. Parents have been asking me about them in the library recently, so I thought I'd read a few random titles to get a better sense of what they're about.
The books I chose were
Thea the Thursday Fairy,
Chloe the Topaz Fairy,
Danielle the Daisy Fairy, and
Poppy the Piano Fairy. After reading all four titles, here's what I learned:
- The Rainbow Magic series actually consists of many smaller series, each focusing on a different type of fairies. Thea the Thursday Fairy is the fourth volume in the Fun Day Fairies series; Chloe the Topaz Fairy is volume 4 in the Jewel Fairies series; Danielle the Daisy Fairy is volume 6 in the Petal Fairies series; and Poppy the Piano Fairy is volume 1 in the Music Fairies series. The other series are Pet Fairies, Rainbow Fairies, Weather Fairies, Sports Fairies, Dance Fairies, Magical Animal Fairies, Ocean Fairies, Twilight Fairies, Showtime Fairies, and Princess Fairies. There is also a collection of books about Special Fairies for holidays like Christmas, and events like sleepovers. Some of the series are currently only available in the UK, but most are available in the US as well.
- Daisy Meadows is obviously a pseudonym, but not just for one person. There are five authors who write the Rainbow Magic books: Narinder Dhami, Sue Bentley, Linda Chapman, Marilyn Kaye and Sue Mongredien. The author of a particular volume is always thanked in the dedication at the start of the book.
- The books are illustrated by a British woman named Georgie Ripper. According to Amazon.com, she has also illustrated two picture books of her own - The Little Brown Bushrat and My Best Friend Bob, as well as A Dog Called Whatnot written by Linda Newbery .
- The books follow a very specific formula, so if you've read one, you have a general idea of what will happen in all the others. In volume 1 of a particular series, Kirsty and Rachel, the human main characters of all of the series, are informed of a crisis in Fairyland. They travel to Fairyland to investigate, and learn that Jack Frost and his goblins have stolen something of value from the fairies (jewels, flower petals, musical instruments, etc.) The girls spend the second half of book one recovering the first of 7 items. In the other 6 volumes of that series, they continue finding the magical items while doing ordinary, everyday things such as picnicking with their parents, buying a Halloween costume, or visiting the aquarium.
- The books don't have to be read in order. Each volume in each series recaps the events of the books preceding it so the reader always knows where she is in the action, what Kirsty and Rachel are searching for, and why. The story isn't complete, however, at the end of just one volume. The r
The Worst Witch is a children's chapter book originally published in the UK in 1974. I first learned of it from the BBC television mini-series called
Picture Book, which spotlighted various children's books that have built the foundation for present-day children's literature. The show pointed out that this book was unique because it put a fantastical twist on the typical school story.
The main character is Mildred Hubbell, and she is the worst student at Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches. Nothing she does ever seems to turn out right:
You could rely on Mildred to have her hat on back-to-front or her bootlaces trailing along the floor. She couldn't walk from one end of a corridor to the other without someone yelling at her, and nearly every night she was writing lines or being kept in (not that there was anywhere to go if you were allowed out.)Throughout the book, Mildred has a variety of mishaps, including turning a classmate into a pig, accidentally creating an invisibility potion, and ruining the class's broomstick formation performance. After realizing that this third accident was actually orchestrated by her rival, Ethel, Mildred decides to run away.
While out in the forest, however, she stumbles upon a secret threat to Miss Cackle's Academy and must decide what to do with that secret information.
This book has many, many parallels to the
Harry Potter series, to the point that if it was published today, we might label it a copycat. It's hard to say, in a post-Harry Potter world, whether this book would have been considered especially creative when it was published, or not. I certainly think kids who have read
Harry Potter, and are accustomed to a lot of action in their fantasy books would probably not be as thrilled by this one. But I also think the change in setting from typical elementary and middle schools does make this a unique read. There are a lot of books about tween girls dealing with awkwardness and striving to fit in with their peers, but few of them written for this age level take place in other worlds, where magic is also a part of that struggle.
I would recommend this book especially to fans of the
Araminta Spookie books, and other books about otherworldly girls. It also made me think of Deborah Hautzig's
Little Witch books from back in the 1980's, (which were apparently illustrated by Marc Brown!) though it doesn't seem like many of the titles I loved are in print anymore. It would also make a really good interim read for kids who want in on the wizard craze, but just aren't ready for
Harry Potter yet. Parents often ask me for HP read-alikes that are short and easier to read, and
The Worst Witch definitely fits the bill.
I should also point out that Jill Murphy has written several other Worst Witch books:
The Worst Witch Strikes Again (1980),
A Bad Spell for the Worst Witch (1982),
The Worst Witch All at Sea (1993),
The Worst Witch Saves the Day (2005), and
Given that it was published in 1996, when I was turning 14, I suspect that I was just about two years too old to have read
Revenge of the Snob Squad by Julie Anne Peters. That's really too bad, though, because it's exactly the kind of book I would have loved during my middle school years.
Jenny Solano, the main character, just doesn't fit in. At home, she's forced to deal with her mother's constant commentary about her weight, while her sister clearly starves herself. At school, she is always picked last in gym class, and she's routinely subjected to the obnoxious comments of Lydia Beals, who thinks she knows everything because her mother is a child psychologist.
When the gym teacher announces that the class will be running relay races in teams, Jenny is thrown into a group with Lydia, as well as Maxine McFarland and Prairie Cactus, two more misfits. Lydia is a klutz, Max is big and scary, and Prairie has a disability that causes her to walk with a limp. The girls really have nothing in common at first, but after the Neon Nikes, another team in the class headed up by the principal's daughter declare war on them, they dub themselves the Snob Squad and vow to get revenge.
The plot of this story is not really much of anything new. What makes this book unique is the character development and the quality of writing. Very few authors could name their character something as ridiculous as Prairie Cactus and still keep me invested in the story. Jenny's dark sense of humor and her cutting one-liners made me laugh, and her hatred of gym class and organized sports resonated with me very strongly. Perhaps because I was in ninth grade when this book was published, I also thought the details of school life were spot-on. Things happen in this book that happened to me and to people I knew.
As I mentioned
last week,
Nerd Girls by Alan Lawrence Sitomer, which comes out this July has a very similar plot line to this book, and though it's not as well-written, it does have a more contemporary feel. In the meantime, though, I'd definitely recommend this one to ages nine and up. There are also two sequels that I'll be reading and reviewing in the near future:
Romance of the Snob Squad and
A Snitch in the Snob Squad.
About the B'nai Bagels was first published in 1969, on the heels of Jennifer,
Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth, and From the
Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, which won a 1968 Newbery
honor and the 1968 Newbery medal respectively. It had a couple of tough
acts to follow, but overall, I think it rose to the occasion.
Mark Setzer is twelve years old. He's
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Haven't read any Snob Squad but what a great title!! Perfect for a middle school book!
The rat science project made me laugh-- my 8th grade project was to see how various rodents thrived on various diets. Not the best choice at the time considering rodents made me squeal!!
Lesa,
This book would bring back (not so) fond rodent memories for you, I have a feeling! Thanks for commenting.