There Goes Christmas! How the Pops Stole Christmas (How I Survived Middle School) by Nancy Krulik

"Talk about being out of character!

I never sing in front of people. At least, not usually, but it was Christmastime, and I couldn't help myself.

It's almost winter vacation and Jenny is warbling away at "Jingle Bells" while she sorts donated coats for the poor in the gym with her friends. Almost at the end of her first semester at middle school, she can't wait for the break--sleeping late, shopping at the mall, skating with her friends. Nothing can spoil her holiday mood!

Nothing except Dana Harrison, the mean ringleader of the Pops--the main clique in their grade, who leads Jenny's ex-friend Addie around virtually by the nose.

"I wonder if I should even bother throwing this thing into the laundry bag," Dana says loudly, making sure that Jenny can hear every snide word. "It's not like you can dry clean away geekiness! Dana dramatically looks inside the coat and reads Jenny's name written on the inside tag. Addie, Claire, Sabrina, and Maya think Dana's sarcasm is hilarious and howl with laughter.

Suddenly all of Jenny's goodwill disappears and she's both hurt and fuming. Then, in her first period class, Mrs. Jaffe announces that they are going to draw for their Secret Snowflake partner to whom they are to give small handmade gifts every day before the break, and of course Jenny draws Dana's name. It seems that the Pops have an insidious way of spoiling even her Christmas spirit.

And things only get worse for her winter break plans. Her friend Sam announces that he's going to be away visiting family in England for the entire holiday, and then Mark invites all the others--but not Jenny--to his New Year's party. Is this going to be a bummer of a break after all?

How The Pops Stole Christmas (How I Survived Middle School Super Special) (Scholastic, 2009), Nancy Krulik's latest in her middle school saga series, How I Survived Middle School, continues Jenny's story as she navigates the sometimes high drama of best friends and snobby cliques in her first year at Joyce Kilmer Middle. The characterizations and setting are recognizable to everyone who's ever made that middle passage through school, and Jenny's common sense, resilience, and the loyalty of her friends, both boys and girls, always see her through the rough spots.

In another wintertime tale of Joyce Kilmer Middle, Jenny finds herself chairing the winter dance committee with ex-BFF Addie, who promises to guarantee an appearance by pop star Cory Tucker at the dance and then finds she can't deliver. Jenny has to decide if she should help cover for her once-good friend or let Addie, er, face the music (or lack thereof) on her own. And in It's All Downhill From Here (How I Survived Middle School), not only does Jenny find her mom has invited Addie to spend an entire snow day at her house, but she then learns that Addie and Dana are finagling to spoil the upcoming class ski trip as well.

Girls in middle school or just approaching that transition time will definitely get Jenny's dilemma of being caught between old and new friends. This series makes a light, funny, but realistic stocking stuffer for 'tweener readers at Christmas.

Foiled Again! The Curse of Addy McMahon by Katie Davis

Anybody can have a bad day, but Addy McMahon is convinced that her string of bad luck, beginning with her father's death when she was nine, has to be the result of the curse placed upon an unfortunate Irish ancestor who cut down a fairy tree.

For example, there's the small but embarrassing incident where her rival for her best friend's attention sees her mother buying her, as she puts it to the saleslady, "a training bra." Then her mom, only one year, eight months, and three weeks after Addy's beloved father's death, not only has a boyfriend, but invites him to move into their guest room while he looks for a new apartment. Despite the fact that Jonathan is a successful writer, Addy's dream career, she finds his constant advice totally annoying.

But then, there's the BIG thing. When Addy interviews her best friend and co-editor of their school paper, The Seeley Times, for one of her signature up-close-and-personal articles, Jackie confesses, off the record, that she's got a crush on Ezra and he may have one on her. A bit jealous of her friend's sudden interest in boy-girl stuff, Addy vents her annoyance by creating a satiric graphic story of her friend in l-u-u-ve, even kissing with Ez. But when she saves it on her computer and emails her interview column to the kids on the staff to edit, she inadvertently sends the wrong file, and soon the whole school is laughing at Jackie's crush and angry with Addy for embarrassing her best friend publicly. It doesn't help that Addy's rival Marsha Pittel ("that's Pit-TEL, like French") moves right in as Jackie's BFF and takes over Addy's job as co-editor of the Times.

Disgraced and shunned at school and uneasy around the ever-present Jonathan at home, Addy is sure that her life is cursed forever. Depressed, she swears off writing, feeling sure that it is part of her family blight, even destroying the writeup of her last interview with her father before his death. It's a painful time for Addy as she tries to live with the consequences of her actions and the loss of both her friend and her writing. Her only outlet is her private journal, done as a sort of graphic diary which she calls her autobiogra-strips.

There's no fairy magic which makes everything in Addy's life right again. Gradually, she realizes that there's no curse, either--just her own personal responsibility for what she does and says. Addy finds the will to apologize to Jackie over and over until their friendship is reborn, and she even finds a way to apologize to Marsha for coming up with the nickname "The Piddle" for her when she first entered their class.

Understanding comes harder with her mother's relationship with Jonathan, but when she angrily shouts that she just wants her father not to be dead, Jonathan confesses his own feelings when his young wife died, also of cancer, and the two begin a better relationship, "post-curse," based on their shared loss and their shared love for writing.

Katie Davis' The Curse of Addy McMahon, is an impressive first novel, with a sympathetic but realistic character, immature but gifted, dealing with all the messiness of middle school friendships and blended family relationships.

A trailer including some of Davis' graphic illustrations for the book can be seen here.

Drama Queen: Zibby Payne and the Drama Trauma by Alison Bell

Zibby Payne is a tomboy. Self-proclaimed. So when tryouts for the sixth grade musical are announced, she's not interested. Make-up and foofy costumes and dancing? She'd rather be playing soccer with the guys.

Then Zibby learns that the main character is a great soccer player. That makes the part more interesting. What's more, the class diva wannabe, Amber, is so sure that she will get the part that she hires Zibby on the spot to coach her in some cool soccer moves to improve her on-stage performance. Zibby reluctantly goes along, noticing that her best friend Sarah and second-best friend Camille are signing up for auditions and pairing up to learn their favorite roles. Suddenly Zibby realizes that she is perfect for the lead role of Miranda after all.

But when she auditions, belting out "Happy Birthday" as she dribbles a soccer ball across the stage, her tryout has one hangup--her grand finale kick goes straight at the drama teacher, who emerges with nose intact only by means of a quick block with her clipboard. In a bit of payback creative casting, Zibby finds herself with the most disgusting minor part of all--Prissy Girl--whose only lines are a song titled "Pink, Wonderful Pink." To make things worse, Zibby is named understudy to Amber, so she has to learn all the lines for the lead role as well as portray a girly girl who bursts into song about the color pink.

But before Zibby's pink pique has a chance to get going, fate steps in. At a concert, Amber slips on her dropped tube of lip gloss and really "breaks a leg."

"Wow," thought Zibby. "A makeup casualty. That has to be a first."

Zibby is elated at giving up the role of Prissy Girl to become the soccer-playing star of the musical--that is, until she reads the script all the way through to page 83, where she discovers that she has to kiss the boy lead, her soccer pal Matthew, at the climax of the play. Zibby and Matthew agree that there is no way that kiss is going to happen in front of an audience, but Mrs. Halpin, their director, is adamant that the plot requires a little love interest.

As the dress rehearsal approaches, Zibby's kiss anxiety overwhelms her, and in a moment of panic, she goes to Mrs. Halpin and gives up the part. Instantly she feels wonderfully relieved, although she can't find the courage to tell her excited family that she won't be in the play after all.

Zibby, however, is the only one whose anxiety is gone. She realizes that leaving the play in mid-rehearsal is causing problems for everyone when her friend Sarah confronts her with the consequences of her action.

"Did you ever stop and think that now somebody has to play Miranda?" Sarah asked. "That someone has to memorize all her lines and songs, with the dress rehearsal this Saturday and the show opening...nine days away!"

"I'm sorry," said Zibby.

"And don't forget that I now have to do the kiss for you!" said Sarah. "And Camille has to take over for me and learn a bunch of new lines, and that means that Franny Dewberry from chorus has to learn Camille's part, and she's terrible!" Sarah continued. "It's all a big fat mess and it's all your fault!"

Zibby stops to think. Who knew that putting on a musical was a team sport just like soccer? Zibby is not one to let down her team. But will Mrs. Halpin accept her apology and let her play Miranda after all? And how is she going to deal with THE KISS?

Alison Bell's Zibby Payne & the Drama Trauma (Zibby Payne) (Zibby Payne) is a fast-moving and funny take on the perennial middle-school dilemmas of best friends, boys, and being true to yourself. Although the ending is a bit over the top, the story line will satisfy fans of this genre with its realistic take on pre-adolescent politics. With an athletic heroine who is so not obsessed with makeup and clothes, sympathetic boy characters, a supportive family, and its slim size, this book is a natural for readers who want to get to the conclusion in a jiffy with jillions of laughs along the way. Other books in the series include Zibby Payne and the Wonderful, Terrible Tomboy Experiment (Zibby Payne), Zibby Payne & the Party Problem (Zibby Payne), Zibby Payne & the Trio Trouble (Zibby Payne), and Bell's latest, Zibby Payne & the Red Carpet Revolt (Zibby Payne) (Zibby Payne) (Zibby Payne). Fans of Meg Cabot's Allie Finkle series should have no problem moving on up to Zibby Payne!

Red Peril in Minnesota: Rising Star of Rusty Nail by Leslie M. M. Blume

Time dragged in Rusty Nail and nothing ever seemed to happen. Even the flies in the air seemed to stand still, as though suspended inside honey-colored amber.

Franny Hansen sometimes feels the weight of the sameness of life in her small Minnesota town, slowly dying even in the bustling years of the early 1950's. Still, Franny and her best friend Sandy make the best of it, as they, as the defenders of democracy against the Communist hordes, are doing one late summer afternoon as they hurl their water balloons from the roof right down on prissy Nancy Orilee, Franny's chief rival for premier pianist of Rusty Nail. Franny and Sandy are grounded for their misdemeanors, but that doesn't stop them from spying on Rusty Nail's most eligible bachelor and his new Russian wife. Sandy is sure that she's a Commie spy, but when Franny spots movers unloading the first grand piano she's ever seen, she realizes that Madame Malenkov must be a great concert pianist and that she has to convince her to become her new piano teacher.

Franny succeeds by trading five afternoons of housework and errands for the chance to have a real teacher. Madame Malenkov is secretive, critical, and difficult, but when Franny finally gets an opportunity to play for her, she senses something special in the ten-year-old pianist and agrees to make her an official student. As Franny learns Madame Malenkov's own personal history of losing her parents and fleeing Stalinist persecution, she realizes that she's no Communist spy. The other ladies of Rusty Nail are sure that their new resident is a danger to the community and imitating Senator Joseph McCarthy, form their own Un-American Activities Committee, the W.O.R.N.A.T.C.T. (Women of Rusty Nail Against The Communist Threat). Yet for Franny Hansen, the mysterious, imperious Russian is her only chance to find her own place as a pianist in the world beyond Rusty Nail.

Against the backdrop of the time capsule town of Rusty Nail, Leslie Blume's The Rising Star of Rusty Nail is a hilarious story of a girl whose passion for music and dislike for "Prancy Nancy" Orilee takes her to the Minnesota Youth Piano Contest and on to a world she has not yet even imagined. Franny is an unforgettable character, as peppery as a pack of RedHots and so much herself that even a one-stoplight town like Rusty Nail can for her be the first stepping stone to the bright lights of New York.

Blume's other notable novels for middle readers are Cornelia and the Audacious Escapades of the Somerset Sisters and Tennyson.