Starting middle school is tough, but when Talia gets stuck in a tug-of-war that tears her usually happy foursome of friends into two warring factions, things only get worse. Initially paired with her best friend Bridget, who has a tendency to be brash and bossy, Talia finds herself questioning her identity and facing difficult decisions. Raising this text above a simple middle-school–friendship drama is Talia’s role in her school’s “Oddcast,” which is a short daily news show aired internally at school and made available as a podcast online. Like her mother on the local morning TV show, Talia reports on middle-school issues with a simple honesty that resonates with her classmates and helps her find her own true voice. With friendship at its core and an eye on the latest teen tech phenomena, this text is spunky and fun. (Fiction. 9-12)
