Tag: mean girls

Posted in Fiction, Fiction, Fiction, Intermediate, Middle Grade, Realistic Fiction

A little girl on a mission: Gertie’s Leap to Greatness

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

gerties-leapGertie’s Leap to Greatness, by Kate Beasley/Illustrated by Jillian Tamaki, (Oct. 2016, Macmillan), $16.99, ISBN: 9780374302610

Recommended for ages 8-12

Gertie Reece Foy is a fifth grader on a mission. She lives in Alabama with her dad, who works on an oil rig, and her great-aunt, who loves her to pieces. But Gertie’s on a mission to be the GREATEST fifth grader: she’s got quite a few plans. See, she wants to go up to her absentee mother – who lives in the same town – and let her know that she didn’t need her after all. Only one thing is standing in Gertie’s way, and that’s the new girl, Mary Sue Spivey. Mary Sue has a Hollywood director daddy and seems to have the world on a string, and she and Gertie do not hit it off at all.

This is a quick read that middle graders will enjoy. Caldecott Honor artist Jillian Tamaki’s (This One Summer) illustrations really bring a gentle life to the characters, particularly the headstrong Gertie, who takes a little bit to love, no lie. Like most middle grade protagonists, she can get a bit caught up in herself, especially considering her circumstances. Her mom abandoned her family when Gertie was just a baby, yet lives in the same town. Gertie passes her mother’s house on the bus route to school every day, and by some crazy happenstance, she and Aunt Rae only bumped into her mother once while grocery shopping at the Piggly Wiggly. I was confused as to why someone would abandon her husband and child, yet stay in the same neighborhood to continue on with her life.

Gertie becomes much more sympathetic when Mary Sue’s mean girl act kicks into high gear. Mary Sue is a truly awful mean girl. The author tried to soften her and make her  more human at the end, but I wasn’t having it, nor was I having what appeared, to me, her mother sanctioning Mary Sue and her new mean girl clique’s behavior in targeting Gertie via a “Clean Earth Club” (Gertie’s dad works on an oil rig, and Mary Sue’s mom is an environmental lobbyist.) There’s some good diversity in the book, as you’ll see in the illustrations and the descriptions of some characters.

Entertainment Weekly is calling Gertie the “next Ramona Quimby”, and that’s a great starting point for display and booktalk/readalikes. Gertie’s Leap to Greatness is a good middle grade addition to collections where realistic fiction is popular. A story thread about oil rigs and the environment provides some good discussion topics.

There’s a Gertie webpage that offers some of Gertie’s Tips for Greatness, and illustrator Jillian Tamaki’s webpage has more artwork to enjoy.

gertie

Some pages from Gertie’s Leap to Greatness, courtesy of Macmillan:

gertie_1gertie_2gertie_3gertie_4

Posted in Adventure, Fantasy, Middle School, mythology, Tween Reads

Pandora Gets Jealous, by Carolyn Hennesy (Bloomsbury, 2008)

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Recommended for ages 10-13

Get ready for Mean Girls meets Clash of the Titans.

Pandora – Pandy to her friends – has no idea what to bring to school for her project on the gods’ presence in their lives. If she brings the piece of her dad, Atlas’, liver again, she’s totally going to fail. When she stumbles across a locked box hidden away, she knows she should not bring it. Her dad told her that she should never open it. But it would be perfect. When the mean girls at school tease her and tell her that the box is worthless, it somehow ends up being opened, and the seven evils escape into the world, and poor Hope ends up being locked in the box.

Zeus and Hera charge Pandora with tracking down and recapturing all of the evils she released in six phases of the moon, or else. Pandy sets off with her two best friends, Alcie and Iole, and a little stealth help from Olympus. Her first stop: Delphi, to recapture Envy.

Pandora Gets Jealous is the first in Ms. Hennesy’s Pandora series; each book features the evil that she and her friends must recapture. Aimed at girls, the writing starts off light, with Pandora appearing almost vapid, but the story becomes intense very quickly. The solid mythology in the book is a great way to bring these stories to a younger, female audience that may still see Greek mythology as something geared toward boys despite there being gods AND goddesses on Olympus. Like Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, Ms. Hennesy makes Greek mythology contemporary for a new audience.

The author, actress Carolyn Hennesy, has a Pandora-focused website with a wealth of additional content on the series including teachers’ guides, book synopses, and a discussion forum.

Posted in Fiction, Middle School, Tween Reads

Book Review: How to Rock Braces and Glasses, by Meg Haston (Little, Brown, 2011)

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Recommended for ages 10-13

Eighth grader Kacey Simon doesn’t think she’s a mean girl, she’s just brutally honest like a good journalist should be. Life is pretty good for Kacey until the tables are turned when a series of accidents leave her stuck with glasses and braces. Within a day, she goes from A-list to D-list as her cool girl friends pretend she doesn’t exist, she’s dropped from her school news segment and the lead in the school play. Her best friend seizes the opportunity to wrest the cool reins and goes on the attack, and a cruel YouTube video makes the rounds in school.

Alone for the first time, Kacey ends up teaming up with a former friend, Paige and emo musician Zander (aka Skinny Jeans) to get her popularity back. Along the way, Kacey learns that she may have been a mean girl after all – or just misunderstood.

The book is shallow, with an unlikeable heroine written to be likeable. Haston’s message of being real gets garbled; it’s as if the author herself is unsure of whether Kacey’s behavior pre-braces is reprehensible or defensible. I did not come away with the true feeling that she learned her lesson at the end of the day; rather, she just learned to find loopholes and how to use people to get her way. It sends out mixed messages.

Tween marketing powerhouse Alloy Entertainment packaged this title and the book has already been optioned to be a new Nickelodeon show, How to Rock, to air in 2012. Author Meg Haston’s website links to her blog and information about the book; she also has a Twitter feed. There is also an iTunes app that lets users take photos of themselves or friends and try on different braces and glasses combinations.

Posted in Fiction, Humor, Middle School, Tween Reads

Book Review: Dork Diaries: Tales from a Not-So Popular Party Girl by Rachel Renee Russell (Aladdin, 2010)

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Recommended for ages 9-12

Dork Diaries: Tales from a Not-So-Popular Party Girl has been hailed as “Wimpy Kid for girls”, and I’m inclined to agree. The book is writtten in similar format – a middle-schooler’s journal – and is complete with illustrations and “OMG!” moments in a pre-teen’s life. Nikki, the protagonist, is not the slacker that Wimpy Kid Greg is, but is definitely not in the cool crowd. She and her friends Chloe and Zoey wish they could be in the CCP (Cute, Cool and Popular) crowd, but Nikki’s nemesis, Mackenzie – a spoiled, rich, mean girl – will do anything and everything to ruin Nikki’s life – including canceling the school Halloween dance just to make Nikki look bad. Nikki and her friends need to pull together to make it happen, and Nikki hopes to get the attention of her crush, Brandon Roberts. The only trouble is, Mackenzie has her sights set on Brandon, too.

The book is fun. Nikki is a vibrant narrator, who speaks fluent middle-school – girls will love her. She writes from a very female point of view, as opposed to the more gender-friendly Wimpy Kid, so I don’t know if boys will get on board with the series (especially as this book has a purple cover). The black and white drawings make you believe you are looking at a ‘tween girl’s diary, as do the script and handwriting fonts. All around, a fun book with a spunky heroine that girls will enjoy – and grown-up girls will laugh along with the more cringe-worthy memories of their own middle school years.

The Dork Diaries website features information on the Dork Diaries books and has a countdown clock for the next book’s release. There is a link to the music inspired by the book, and the Nikki has a blog where she recaps memories (from the books), links fan videos, and features fun contests and printables.

Posted in Fiction, Middle School, Tween Reads

Book Review: The Popularity Papers: Research for the Social Improvement and General Betterment of Lydia Goldblatt & Julie Graham-Chang, by Amy Ignatow (Amulet Books, 2010)

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Recommended for ages 9-13
I finished this book in a day. It’s that good. I also giggled out loud while reading this on the subway – it’s that funny.

The Popularity Papers is the project (“Learn/Improve”) undertaken by fifth graders Lydia and Julie, who want to be popular by the time they reach middle school. Deciding to observe the most popular girls in the school to figure out what makes them popular, imitate them and perhaps even infiltrate the group, Lydia and Julie record their notes, observations, conversations with family and friends, and drawings to tell the story of their social climb. On the way up, they learn that being popular isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be, that being popular means different thing to different people – including who you like and who you’re not supposed to like – and Lydia discovers what can happen when the quest for popularity goes to your head.

The characters aren’t your staid, Gossip Girl-type mean girls: One popular girl plays field hockey and knits; Lydia lives with her divorced mom and sister, who made the transition from pretty, tan girl to dark-haired, pale goth; and Julie lives with her two dads, Daddy and Papa Dad. It’s a book that addresses different people and different family structures but it’s not cliche and it doesn’t come across as being portrayed for the sake of being edgy or different. It’s an honest storytelling.
 
The girls’ notes to one another are as hilarious as the situations they find themselves in, and Lydia’s journaling when she finds herself in sole possession of the notebook after she and Julie stop speaking is heartfelt and real. Readers will easily be able to see themselves and their friends in these characters and can hopefully laugh at themselves a little more easily.
 
Amy Ignatow’s Amulet web page offers an author blog and links to author appearances, press and a gallery of some more images from the book. It looks like another Popularity Papers book has come out – I need to get myself a copy.