In this lively sequel, both fans and readers new to the story can enjoy the enterprising endeavors of these steadfast...
After successfully establishing their party-planning venture, (You’re Invited, 2015) the four friends behind RSVP feel ready to handle their first wedding.
However, seventh-graders Sadie, Lauren, Becca, and Vi soon encounter a raft of obstacles, both collectively and individually, as they work to arrange the wedding of an outrageously demanding bride-to-be. Each girl narrates the tale from her individual perspective in alternating chapters that begin with snippets reflecting the girls’ personalities: Sadie’s to-do lists, Lauren’s vocabulary words, Vi’s recipes, and Becca’s horoscopes. Malone and Nall explore topics such as complicated parent-child dynamics, mean girls, new crushes, first kisses, and the pressures to be a perfect student. Amid the flurry, Sadie frets about her mother, Lauren’s plans to schedule mandatory fun time go awry, the new boy in town captures the effervescent Becca's interest, and Vi contents with the continual taunts of Linney. An impending hurricane and the resulting evacuation to their middle school provide the catalyst for the girls to resolve their concerns. Throughout the tale, the authors highlight the loyal, genuine friendship the girls share. As the quartet endure the bride-to-be’s antics, wild weather, and life dilemmas, they gain a renewed appreciation of their friendship, recognizing that they can rely upon each other to weather life’s upheavals.
In this lively sequel, both fans and readers new to the story can enjoy the enterprising endeavors of these steadfast friends. (Fiction. 11-14)Pub Date: Feb. 16, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-3200-9
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2015
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
A terrific premise buried beneath problem-novel tropes.
A gaggle of eighth graders find the coolest clubhouse ever.
Fulfilling the fantasies of anyone who’s ever constructed a fort in their bedroom or elsewhere, Korman hands his five middle schoolers a fully stocked bomb shelter constructed decades ago in the local woods by an eccentric tycoon and lost until a hurricane exposes the entrance. So, how to keep the hideout secret from interfering grown-ups—and, more particularly, from scary teen psychopath Jaeger Devlin? The challenge is tougher still when everyone in the central cast is saddled with something: C.J. struggles to hide injuries inflicted by the unstable stepdad his likewise abused mother persists in enabling; Jason is both caught in the middle of a vicious divorce and unable to stand up to his controlling girlfriend; Evan is not only abandoned by drug-abusing parents, but sees his big brother going to the bad thanks to Jaeger’s influence; Mitchell struggles with OCD–fueled anxieties and superstitions; and so forth. How to keep a story overtaxed with issues and conflicts from turning into a dreary slog? Spoiler alert: Neither the author nor his characters ultimately prove equal to the challenge. With the possible exception of Ricky Molina, one of the multiple narrators, everyone seems to be White.
A terrific premise buried beneath problem-novel tropes. (resources, author’s note) (Fiction. 11-13)Pub Date: June 28, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-338-62914-9
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2022
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