Bugged! Something Is Bugging Samantha Hansen by Nancy Viau

It started last fall on our class trip to Slippery Stone Cave. I was being extremely helpful to our cave guide, and That Kid Richard said I was a science freak and had rocks in my head. But Todd Kensington stuck up for me. I decided right then that Todd would be my boyfriend one day--in a few years when I was allowed to have a boyfriend. But then Kelli invited Todd over to her house. I got so mad at Kelli.

Kelli and I don't stay mad for long. She's been my friend since kindergarten. Best friend. But since Christmas vacation, she's only been over twice. She has not been best friend material these days.

The rocks in Samantha's head have been displaced pro tem by the next science unit--insects--but her relationship with Kelli is not exactly buzzing. Kelli has started dance lessons and has been as busy as a bee with her ballet friend Ling. But, not surprisingly, at school Samantha finds a new obsession, not fractions and percentages, but bees--and on an outing to a local apiary with her grandfather, she is dismayed to learn that the owner is planning to sell out and move away. Her angry stomping around gets her in trouble with her mom, who is starting a new job and her teenaged sister Jen, thinks she's a big baby to make a fuss over a bunch of bees.

But her teacher, Miss Montemore, is sympathetic, and That Kid Richard Frey, who does have cute dimples, helps her start their class Bug Club.

But dimple-faced boys are not important now. What I need is a friend. A best friend. Someone who wants to hang out with me. And if that someone liked science, that would make the second half of fourth grade fifty-million percent better.

Samantha finds a science friend, her classmate Kat, who also loves science and is very funny besides, and Kat joins her in forming a club and heading up their campaign, Save The Bees. Before she knows it, she's Samantha Hansen, Entymologist, and President of the Bug Club, the science kids organize a demonstration, complete with Save the Bees posters and articles in the local newspaper.

The apiary is saved, with a surprising new owner and there is clearly more nature science and best friends in Samantha's future, in Something Is Bugging Samantha Hansen (Schiffer Publishing, 2019). It's not as if Samantha Hansen has exactly lost her love for rocks. She's not fickle, but in this humorous sequel to Samantha Hansen Has Rocks in Her Head, (see review here) she's playing the field, that is, the field of beehives at Orchardville Farm, learning about beekeeping, and perhaps a little about juggling emotions and controlling her temper with her best friends (plural) and potential far-in-the-future boyfriends. Samantha Hansen is a delightfully lively and honest character in this forthcoming funny and down-to-earth realistic fiction book for middle readers.