Tween Tuesday: The Aristrobrats by Jennifer Solow

5 yummy frosted maple cookies. (click for recipe)


Cover Love: Yes! I love the print and the pictures of the girls. The totally fit the descriptions of the characters. The only thing I would change is to make the color scheme pink & green.

Why I Wanted to Read This: I was offered the chance to review this book and interview the author by Sourcebooks. I love this idea of a "gossip girl" type series that I can actually recommend for middle grade readers, so I gave this one a look. Here's the summary from Amazon:
Parker Bell knows the secret to beauty is pretty simple–wearing the right clothes isn't as important as how you feel in them. Popularity is like that too. It's all about attitude. You have to picture who you want to be and then just imagine that's who you already are.

This year Parker and her three best friends have made their way to the top of the populadder at Wallingford Academy. And they're ready to use their Aristobrat status to help spread positive vibes throughout the school. But when the girls are assigned to produce the seriously lame school webcast, their popularity plummets! Will this tragedy destroy the girls' status? Or their friendship? Or both?

I Kept Reading Because: I loved the characters. They were such good normal tweenagers. Concerned about how they are perceived, sometimes hiding personal things from each other, wanting to have a good time, but also to take steps towards making something of themselves.

Romance?: Yes, a very sweet little tween romance/crush. Something that I hope will be developed a bit more in the next book.

What I Liked: How normal these girls were! They were not mean girls, but that does not mean they didn't sometimes think uncharitable thoughts about other girls. They were privelged girls, but none of them acted snotty. The author did a great job creating girls that are relate-able and that can be role models for young girls of today!

I liked the "kidspeak", only because there was a dictionary at the end that helped me understand a lot of it.

I am glad the author spotlighted how important technology is to today's youth. I like the innocence of some books that never mention TV or the internet, but I am glad that it was the forefront of this group of kid's lives.

I LOVED how they each took steps towards self-assurance. In my experience (many years ago) middle school/junior high was more key in developing reputations than high school. This book really showed that the eighth grade year is very important to get right before heading to high school, and each of these girls seems to be headed in the right direction.

What I Would Like to See: A continued march towards self-confidence for each girl. I wonder if each book will spotlight a different girl, but I kind of hope not. I really related to Parker and would like to see another book in her voice. However, each of the girls was very interesting and a book from another point of view would be a good read also.

To Sum Up: GREAT start to a series for middle grade girls. I will highly recommend this one to readers at my school!

Tomorrow I will have a guest post by the very lovely Jennifer Solow on her own prep school years. It will have you rolling!