Summary
Middle school is all about looking cool, being popular, and fitting in. And Calista is acing all three of those areas. She is a beautiful girl. She’s popular with teachers and students. Thankfully, she is also pretty sweet, and doesn’t use her popularity to manipulate or bully others. But even sweet girls can get used to the popularity that comes from being beautiful.
Then Calista gets a pimple. Pimples are par for the course in middle school, but this is Calista’s first pimple. And it shows up right before the big dance. But the pimple is only the beginning of Calista’s woes. Suddenly the perfect, popular girl is a mess. She’s not flawless any more. Her friends don’t defer to her. The boy she likes asks someone else to the dance. Nothing seems to go her way.
When her life doesn’t look like it used to, Callie rediscovers Damian, the sweaty guy she met when he was a new student, and Laura, her former best friend. Over the course of a week, these three will learn a lot about friendship and looking beneath the surface of the people around them.
Review
This seems like a simple story on the surface. I mean, it starts with a pimple! But the author does a great job of making this small thing – which is only the start of Callie’s problems – appropriately important for middle school social relationships.
And those relationships are complicated. The kids are three dimensional, even the secondary characters. I liked that Calista’s crew was so wishy washy about her situation. At times they had sympathy for her and other times they took advantage of her situation. It didn’t make them very likable, but it did make them realistic! I loved that the adults – the parents and the school staff – were supportive but also let the kids work things out appropriately on their own in a lot of ways.
I’ve enjoyed the author’s other work. This is a good addition to collections of his work and for upper elementary and some early middle school classrooms.
I received an electronic review copy of this book from Netgalley and Roaring Brook Press in exchange for an honest review.