BUFFALO BRENDA

by Jill Pinkwater ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 1989

A riotous novel in which two freethinking companions repeatedly set their suburban school on its collective ear. Fast friends since seventh grade, India Ink Teitelbaum and daring Brenda Tuna decide they don't want to disappear into the mass of high-school freshmen-so they energetically stir things up on the school newspaper with articles that rate the teachers and report what the Popular Crowd really talks about. Then, kicked off the paper by their irate principal, they set up a press in Brenda's garage and inflame the student body with a true report that the lunchroom freezer is full of horsemeat. The next fall, not content to rest on her laurels, Brenda organizes a wildly popular booster club for her team--the Florence High Buffaloes--even managing to line up the appropriate mascot. Between and around these shenanigans, Pinkwater weaves plenty of lively narrative and snappy dialogue. India and Brenda have fine, understanding parents (entirely too understanding, Brenda complains); their friends are good-hearted misfits; and, as usual in YA novels, the school staff doesn't come off so well: the Good Teacher gleefully resigns just before she's fired, the Malicious Teacher and the unfriendly, not-too-bright principal are both publicly humiliated. A ""safe"" story--there's always a helpful adult around to bail the teen-agers out of their many predicaments--but a funny one.

Pub Date: May 1, 1989

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 192

Publisher: Macmillan

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1989

Categories: CHILDREN'S