A gentle, lighthearted look at friendship and creativity.
Maren’s hometown is holding a contest, and a meeting with her celebrity crush is the prize.
The latest series from Team Cheer! author Jones features a group of best friends who call themselves the Sleepover Girls, as almost every Friday they have a sleepover. The novel starts with character sketches: There’s energetic comedienne Maren, creative bohemian Willow, go-getter Delaney and fashionista Ashley. (Evidently, dark-skinned Delaney and Italian-American Ashley provide diversity.) The other thing that defines Maren is her crush on pop star Luke Lewis. He’s coming to their hometown (his also), Portland, Oregon, suburb of Valley View, for a concert, and the town’s having a contest to determine which resident will get to help present him with a key to the city. The most creative “Love Letter to Valley View” wins. After much brainstorming, Maren and her friends put together a lovingly crafted, highly decorated scrapbook of photos and letters of and from the town’s residents. But then it goes missing from Maren’s unlocked locker, leaving the Sleepover Girls to wonder who took it—was it the wealthy, mean-girl twins, Franny and Zoey Martin?—and whether Maren will miss her chance to meet her idol. The characters are sometimes hard to keep track of, appearing mostly when their skill sets are needed. Topics like divorce and ADHD are not stigmatized but presented as normal facets of life.
A gentle, lighthearted look at friendship and creativity. (personality quiz) (Fiction. 7-11)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-62370-193-2
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Capstone Young Readers
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2014
Certain to elicit both gales of giggles and winces of sympathy (not to mention recognition) from young readers.
First volume of a planned three, this edited version of an ongoing online serial records a middle-school everykid’s triumphs and (more often) tribulations through the course of a school year.
Largely through his own fault, mishaps seem to plague Greg at every turn, from the minor freak-outs of finding himself permanently seated in class between two pierced stoners and then being saddled with his mom for a substitute teacher, to being forced to wrestle in gym with a weird classmate who has invited him to view his “secret freckle.” Presented in a mix of legible “hand-lettered” text and lots of simple cartoon illustrations with the punch lines often in dialogue balloons, Greg’s escapades, unwavering self-interest and sardonic commentary are a hoot and a half.
Certain to elicit both gales of giggles and winces of sympathy (not to mention recognition) from young readers. (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: April 1, 2007
ISBN: 0-8109-9313-9
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2007
SEEN & HEARD
PERSPECTIVES
Lighthearted spook with a heaping side of silliness—and hair.
Fifth graders get into a hairy situation.
After an unnamed narrator’s full-page warning, readers dive right into a Wolver Hollow classroom. Mr. Noffler recounts the town legend about how, every Oct. 19, residents don fake mustaches and lock their doors. As the story goes, the late Bockius Beauregard was vaporized in an “unfortunate black powder incident,” but, somehow, his “magnificent mustache” survived to haunt the town. Once a year, the spectral ’stache searches for an exposed upper lip to rest upon. Is it real or superstition? Students Parker and Lucas—sole members of the Midnight Owl Detective Agency—decide to take the case and solve the mustache mystery. When they find that the book of legends they need for their research has been checked out from the library, they recruit the borrower: goth classmate Samantha von Oppelstein. Will the three of them be enough to take on the mustache and resolve its ghostly, unfinished business? Whether through ridiculous plot points or over-the-top descriptions, the comedy keeps coming in this first title in McGee’s new Night Frights series. A generous font and spacing make this quick-paced, 13-chapter story appealing to newly confident readers. Skaffa’s grayscale cartoon spot (and occasional full-page) illustrations help set the tone and accentuate the action. Though neither race or skin color is described in the text, images show Lucas and Samantha as light-skinned and Parker as dark-skinned.
Lighthearted spook with a heaping side of silliness—and hair. (maps) (Fiction. 7-10)Pub Date: Aug. 31, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5344-8089-6
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2021
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