Sunday, December 24, 2006

The It Girl ****

Von Ziegesar, Cecily. The It Girl. New York: Little, Brown, 2005.

This is a spin-off series from the popular Gossip Girl series. Jenny Humphrey, after being kicked out of Constance Billard, enroles in Waverly, a co-ed boarding school in upstate New York. She wants to start the new year off on the right foot and forget about "Old Jenny". Her goal is to be popular, the "It Girl" on campus.

She takes over the bed that used to belong to Tinsley, who left the previous year after being kicked out over mysterious circumstances. She is rooming with Brett and Callie, best friends that are no longer speaking to each other after Tinsley was kicked out. Similar to Gossip Girl, there are spurned loves, and unrequited crushes. There are also a lot of parties and drinking, both on campus and off.

In between the chapters are Emails and Text Messages from students and others about incidents happening in the book, mostly gossip, similar to Gossip Girl. Fans of Gossip Girl will love this series, although it is somewhat tamer.

Thursday, December 21, 2006

The Clique ****

Harrison, Lisi. The Clique. 2004.

This is the first book in the very popular middle school series. I would describe this as Gossip Girl for younger readers, and without the smut. It has lots of catty behavior, and lots of name dropping, but none of the sex and stuff like that.

Massie is a part of a group of four really popular girls at their very exclusive private school in Westchester County, NY. Massie, Dylan, Kristen, and Alicia. An old friend of Massie's father decides to move there from Florida and takes a job at the same company. Until they can afford a house of their own, the Lyons family will be living in the pool house. They have a daughter, Claire, that is also going into 7th grade. Massie tries to push Claire on her and Massie doesn't like it one bit, especially since she is a bit of a dork. Claire wants to be a part of their group desperately regardless of the fact that the girls want nothing to do with her.

Recommended for girls in the middle grades that like gossip-y type books.

Other books in the series:
Best Friends for Never
Revenge of the Wannabees
Invasion of the Boy Snatchers
The Pretty Committee Strikes Back