Making It in Middle School: Caught in the Web (How I Survived Middle School) by Nancy Krulik

"I think every school has its own group of Pops.

Basically they're at the top of the middle school food chain."

The non-Pop girls--Jenny, Felicia, Rachel--are bored. Television stinks; the weather stinks; and as they rummage through Jenny's collection of old home movies for entertainment, they run across the video of her third grade sleepover and Easter Egg Hunt.

Laughing over the sight of themselves as eight-year-olds make them yearn to do something telegenic, and the girls suddenly come up with the idea of producing a webcast for the middle school audience. Titling it the Webcast Underground (for the basement from which it is to be broadcast), they soon recruit Marc, their movie fan friend, as director, Liza, their artsy pal, as set designer, and Chloe (who has a new laptop) as their tech person. Jenny prepares promotional flyers to blanket their middle school, and when their talent show takes to the webwaves, the non-Pops find themselves, well, instant celebs at Joyce Kilmer Middle.

But their moment as neo-POPs doesn't last. The Pops can't stand to give up center stage and waste no time in trotting out their competitive webcast School Style. But for their second show, the Pops get more notoriety than popularity. They select a bespectacled plain Jane non-Pop named Melissa for their glamor makeover special. The webcast goes great, but when they trot out their new beauty queen at lunch the next day, the nearsighted Melissa, not wearing her dorky glasses, of course, mistakes the false eyelash she drops in her soup for a spider, and there's a lot of flying food decorating the perfect outfits at the Pops table, to the amusement of the whole cafeteria.

As usual, the Pops get their comeuppance, in Nancy Krulik's Caught in the Web (How I Survived Middle School), the continuing middle school saga featuring Jenny and her non-Pop friends whose humor and resilience make sixth grade fun despite everything. Other books in the How I Survived Middle School series include Can You Get An F In Lunch? (How I Survived Middle School), Madame President (How I Survived Middle School), It's All Downhill From Here (How I Survived Middle School), I Heard A Rumor (How I Survived Middle School), Who's Got Spirit? (How I Survived Middle School) and Cheat Sheet (How I Survived Middle School).

Making It in Middle School: Into the Woods: How I Survived Middle School by Nancy Krulik

With all my camping experience, the only thing I found worrisome about the trip was this whole packing thing.

I had to pick out clothes that were old enough that I wouldn't care if they got ruined or lost at camp, but cool enough to keep me from being teased by the Pops--our school's group of fashion police.

Joyce Kilmer Middle School's sixth and seventh graders are off for five fun-filled days at Camp Einstein, and as usual, Jenny is trying to survive the power struggle between the Pops, the "popular club" which now includes her former BFF Addie Wilson, and her new "non-Pops" friends. Her new girl friends--Sam, Chloe, Rachel, and Felicia--have requested that they share a cabin together with her, so Jenny's pre-camp jitters are pretty much limited to wardrobe worries.

But the camp directors have other ideas about social groupings, and Jenny, Chloe, and Sam find themselves stuck in a cabin with Addie and Dana Harrison, the queen of the Pops. Jenny, Chloe, and Sam resolve to avoid their Pops roomies as much as possible, but even though numbers are on their side, Jenny knows that they have their work cut out for them for the next five days.

This wasn't the regular world. This was the middle school world. And in our world Pops were more powerful than non-Pops no matter what the numbers. It was just the way it was.

Dana and Addie show up with a forbidden hair dryer and straightener and try to blame the non-Pops for them when they blow the camp's fuses. Caught with the contraband, Dana and Addie wind up on KP the first day, and out for revenge, Dana blames a "sprained ankle" acquired during a trust exercise on her non-Pops partner so that she can order her to fetch and carry for the next few days. The Pops heckle Jenny's friend Josh mercilessly, calling him "Mr. Science Geek," and his girlfriend "Ms. Science Geek" as they belittle his interest in nature studies.

The non-Pops get the last laugh, however, when Jenny shouts "Mouse!" in the cafeteria and Dana drops her crutches and nimbly hops atop a table. And when Addie's misuse of the compass gets the group lost on their night hike, Josh's knowledge of astronomy helps him to become a superstar when he locates the North Star and steers the group safely out of the woods and back to camp. As Jenny puts it philosophically,

That's the thing about middle school. Nothing ever stays the same.

One minute the Pops are the ones everybody wants to be around. Then suddenly everyone's dying to learn how to find the Big Dipper in the sky from Mr. Science Geek.

Nancy Krulik's recent Into The Woods (How I Survived Middle School) (Scholastic, 2009) joins her other books in the How I Survived Middle School series in offering both solid guidance and a light-handed humorous look at the sudden changes in everything that middle school brings.

For my posted review of the first book in the series, Can You Get An F In Lunch? (How I Survived Middle School) and some helpful nonfiction guides to middle school survival, take a look here.

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.

Back to School: How I Survived Middle School: Can You Get a F in Lunch? by Nancy Krulik

Jenny thinks she's ready for middle school: she's wearing her coolest sleepover camp tee; she's read the school handbook cover to cover three times; and her best friend Addie will be there for her every step of the way.

But when she happily meets Addie at their lockers, it's like Jenny just woke up on another planet. Addie has a whole new group of swim team friends from the hometown day camp and a ninth-grade boyfriend to walk her to class. Jenny realizes that her clothes are all wrong, her sack lunch is dorky, and she has absolutely no one to eat lunch with. Even memorizing the school handbook doesn't keep the eighth graders from sending her on a wild goose chase to the cafeteria.

As Addie continues to ignore her for her new Pop Club friends, Jenny is led to make up a new handbook for middle school.

RULE #1: A BIG GREEN T-SHIRT WITH A LIZARD ON THE FRONT IS NOT MATURE.

RULE #2: NO BROWN BAG LUNCHES.

RULE #3: ANYONE WHO IS ANYONE GOES TO THE CAFETERIA GIRLS' ROOM AFTER LUNCH.

RULE #4: PASSING NOTES IS COOL.

RULE #5: NEVER FEEL TOO GOOD ABOUT YOURSELF: SOMEONE WILL MAKE IT THEIR BUSINESS TO KNOCK YOU DOWN AGAIN.

Little by little, Jenny makes a whole new group of "non-Pop" friends and finds out that they have more fun than the social leaders because they're free to ignore the slavish rules and dress code of the Pops. When Jenny gets the courage to confront the cruel Pops leader publicly and incidentally douses Addie with purple yogurt, she finds herself the hero of the school. Sentenced to a detention working at the refreshment table at the fall dance, Jenny finds that everyone wants to talk to her, which makes Addie a bit jealous, a little lonely, and a lot apologetic. Meanwhile Jenny looks forward to having her new friends over to her house to keep her company while she's grounded.

Other books in this series are I Heard a Rumor (How I Survived Middle School) and
Madame President (How I Survived Middle School).

For real-life advice on preparation for middle school that doesn't involve purple yogurt, here are three timely and tested guides: A Smart Girl's Guide to Starting Middle School, Keeping Cool in Middle School, and The Middle School Survival Guide.

Georgia Rocks! Middle School: My Brother Is A Big Fat Liar by James Patterson and Lisa Papademotriou

"IT'S SO GREAT THAT YOU AREN'T AFRAID TO HAVE GREEN HAIR," Rhonda gushed. "YOU AND I ARE A LOT ALIKE--WE'RE NOT AFRAID TO BE DIFFERENT, RIGHT, GEORGIA?"

Rhonda was talking at an even higher volume than usual, and a few people stared as we made our way down the hall.< "I'm not trying to be different," I snapped.

"YOU'RE JUST BEING YOURSELF!" Rhonda crowed. "WE ARE WHO WE ARE!"

"Rhonda! We're not alike, okay? So can you please just stop following me around?"

Rhonda froze up. Her eyes filled with tears.

It's not like Georgia has great expectations for her first day at Hills Valley Middle School. After all, her brother Rafe had practically brought the school down in his year there, attempting to break every rule in the book. And then, there's no way she can slip in under the radar with a last name like Khatchadorian. And in a payback prank, Rafe slips some green dye into her shampoo and she has to face the first day of school with green hair.

Rafe may have gone off to Airbrook Arts School, but his name is still anathema at HVMS. Every table in the cafeteria seems to be a Khatchadorian-free zone, and Missy Trillin, pop princess queen-bee and her interchangeable followers Brittany and Bethany zero in on her as their chosen victim-of-the-month, ridiculing her clothes, her limp, and of course her hair. Teachers turn into trolls when they see her name on the roll, and the only friendly face she finds is Rhonda, a super-sized middle-school loser straight from central casting who latches onto her like a barnacle onto a barge.

At least Georgia has her friends from Airbrook, Nanci, Patti, and Mari, and their as-yet-unnamed rock band. Sure. she is just learning her first three chords, but Georgia has high hopes. That is, until she discovers that Rafe has malevolently signed them up for the upcoming Battle of the Bands at the HVMS dance, presided over by (who else?) Dance Committee Chairperson, Missy Trillin. "We STINK!" Georgia moans, but Rhonda, who has tagged along for rehearsal, thinks We Stink is a killer name for the group. She even offers her services as band singer. She won't need a microphone, Georgia admits, with dread.

James Patterson's latest in his best-selling Middle School series, Middle School: My Brother Is a Big, Fat Liar (Little, Brown, 2013), has all the elements in place for a middle-school serio-comic trauma tale.  Giving the distaff side a chance in her very own book, Georgia is an appealing narrator as she deals with the world's most annoying big brother and the travail of the school scene, struggling to keep her A+ super student status with all the cards stacked against her. Although most readers will suspect how this one will turn out, it's fun getting to that delicious denouement when Missy gets her just desserts (rice pudding and all) and a literal putdown as We Stink rocks and rolls right over her. Patterson throws the readers an interesting curve with his introduction of Georgia's sudden realization that she is adopted, and that Rafe is, after all, NOT her brother. Or IS he? Although this serious side note introduces a new element into this sibling story, it is well foreshadowed and adds a bit of depth to the warring sibling theme.

Patterson's earlier books in this series, all illustrated in pseudo-Rafe drawings by Neil Swaab, are Middle School, The Worst Years of My Life and Middle School: Get Me out of Here!

And wait! There's More! Summer vacation is coming and it seems those opposing siblings Rafe and Georgia are off to Camp Wannamorra, with remediation for Rafe and enrichment for Georgia and all the usual suspects of summer camp just waiting for them in the forthcoming-in-June Middle School: How I Survived Bullies, Broccoli, and Snake Hill.

Rafe on the Rocks! Save Rafe: (Middle School #5) by James Patterson

"You heard me!" Mom shouted on the other side of that door.

"YOU'RE GOING BACK TO HILLS VILLAGE MIDDLE SCHOOL!!!!"

Having gotten himself expelled from Hills Village Middle and similarly ejected from two private art schools, Rafe Khatchadorian finds himself on the educational rocks in more ways than one. His mother has no recourse but to try to re-enroll him at Hills Village.

"You're a PUBLIC SCHOOL! You HAVE to take him!" Mom pleads, but the administrators at HVMS are as hard-nosed as their names imply. Mrs. Stricker and Mrs. Stonecase offer Rafe only one chance to re-matriculate without repeating last year's work--successfully completing The Program ("a highly effective intensive program for behaviorally challenged children") (as in boot camp). Rafe knows he can't let his long-suffering mom down yet again.

But when he arrives at what is euphemistically called Base Camp and sees the rest of the motley crew of campers, he figures he may be the only kid there who is not a crazy, a delinquent, or a major loser. Okay, he has to admit, so far, he probably is all three. His leader, Sargeant Fish, is unhappy with the sorry performance of his charges in setting up camp, and nobody eats that night. And they have to survive seven more days of this torture!

"GOOD MORN-ING, COCKROACHES.

"Time to mow down another challenge," Sarge Fish said. "Move, move, move, move, moooooove!"

The next morning Rafe discovers something about himself--he's acrophobic! He freezes on the way up the climbing tower obstacle, where, by the way, the only lunch option is waiting, and barely makes it to the top, failing to win one of the twenty tokens he must have to pass the course. Even the other losers laugh at him.

After cutting trees and constructing a raft to float down the river, Rafe's team is up, well, down the creek without their paddles, which they lose while spinning dizzily out of control in the rapids. Wet and cold, the failed crew get only a chewing out from their leaders, who tell them to suck it up and head up the nearby mountain. "Move! Move! MOOOOVE!!

To make it worse, Rafe is partnered with Carmen, a tattooed tough chick who punches his arm unless he does all her work as well as his own. Rafe has to get those tokens: failure means washing out and ensuring that he will spend a minimum of four years in middle school. So he does her bidding, trying to stay out of range of her right fist as much as possible while he does her half of the chores. Still, climbing the Devil's Highway cliff, with the nineteenth token at stake, Rafe forgets not to look down and freezes in fear. And there's no help in sight except for Charmin' Carmen, gleefully grabbing for his best handholds.

"Don't be a wuss!" Carmen said. And then she pinched me.

"STOP IT!" I yelled at her.

"Make me," she said And this time her pinch felt more like a piranha taking a bite out of my side.

It was Ticking. Me. Off!

But this time Carmen has the right moves to save Rafe.

Down to the last token to go, Rafe hangs on, his only refuge his drawing notebook. But when the teams are required to collect firewood and build a fire with flint and steel in the pouring rain, Carmen points out that the only way they'll ever get their soggy kindling to burn is by using Rafe's precious notebook as tinder. Saving a few of his Leo and the Loozer pages, Rafe hands his book over to start the fire and win the twentieth token--his ticket home.

It's tough love like Rafe has never seen, as he begins to wonder why he ever screwed up his cushy previous life--a warm, dry house with a refrigerator and his mom to deal with all the problems, in James Patterson's latest in his hilarious Middle School series, Middle School: Save Rafe! (Little, Brown, 2014). After The Program, Hills Village Middle is going to be a piece of cake, Rafe figures.

Well, maybe. Patterson's other books in his best-selling picaresque hero series are Middle School, The Worst Years of My Life, Middle School: Get Me out of Here!, Middle School: My Brother Is a Big, Fat Liar, and Middle School: How I Survived Bullies, Broccoli, and Snake Hill. (see reviews here).

Rites of Passage: Sons of the 613 by Michael Rubens

"Today I am a man.

Right there I knew something was wrong--seriously wrong--with Eric Weinberg. Everyone in the audience knew it.

It wasn't just the anxious, weebly quaver of his voice, the nasal soprano of which didn't do much to support Eric's assertion of manhood. I could see the greasy sheen of sweat on his beaky nose and the trembling of his birdlike hands. Eric... was starting to sway gently behind the podium.

I glanced at Josh. His muscly jaw was clenched, lips pressed together. He was trying not to laugh. This was funny to him.

I couldn't even look at Eric. He was giving off waves of intensely contagious Panic, and my Panic immune system is extremely weak.

My nine-year-old sister Lisa was staring at the stage with undisguised eyes-wide, mouth-open horror.

Baruch ata... adonai" Rabbi Abramovitz prompted again

"Blaarrrgh!" Eric responded, the dull, soupy splat of Eric's breakfast hitting the carpeted steps. The bar mitzvah boy hit the deck, out cold.

“Guess what, Isaac -–in two weeks, that’s going to be you up there!” said Josh, with a huge grin on his face.

It’s not just empathy for another bar mitzvah boy, one of only four Jewish kids in Isaac’s Edina, Minnesota, eighth-grade class, even though Eric’s epic hurling, which nearly besmirches the Torah, turns his debut as Jewish man into a viral YouTube video and Eric into a total pariah. It's that he knows Josh's taunting words are true, yea, prophetic. Isaac’s own bar mitzvah is near, and he has conveniently avoided telling his parents that his hired tutor Yoel has not shown up for any of the scheduled sessions to teach him the haphtorah passages he must recite all too soon. As far as preparation goes, Isaac has got nothing.

The handwriting (along with Eric’s barf) is now on the wall for Isaac, but to make things worse, his parents announce that they have decided to head off to Rome for a medical conference and vacation, leaving Isaac and Lisa under the supervision of Josh, their brawling, chip-on-shoulder, college dropout, one-time professional wrestling oldest son for two weeks.

“Josh will take care of us? Why-eee?”

“Yes!” (It was her power YES.) “I want my trip to I-ta-ly.” said Mom.

“My bar mitzvah is in two weeks. What if I’m not ready?”

“Look,” said my mom. “If you need more practice, Josh will help you. He loves that stuff.”

Oh, God.

“Right, Josh?” Mom said. “You’re big on the Jew stuff. You can help Isaac, right?”

Josh grins that big predatory grin of his.

Isaac is a good student, an ace at chess and Dungeons & Dragons with his peeps, Steve, Danny, and Paul, but not a jock and the first to admit to Josh that he is nowhere near being a man. But Josh, whose forearm tattoo proclaims his allegiance to the 613 rules of the Tanakh, has plans to fix that–a fortnight of Mega-Jewish boot camp to make a man out of his little brother.

Along with endless skull sessions on haphtorah passages punctuated by dope-slaps and punitive pushups, Josh puts Isaac on a course of 5 a.m. runs, jumping off cliffs into freezing rivers, self-defense and sharpshooting lessons, and midnight sorties to rock clubs, strip joints, pool halls, a bit of breaking and entering, and, of course, skipping school. Isaac soon sports one, then two shiners, gets his medium Jewfro cut short and spiked, loses his perfect attendance award, wrecks redneck punk Patrick’s motorcycle, and tops it off with a school-suspending fist fight with tormenting school bullies. Along the way Isaac gives up his room to Patrick and girlfriend Terri, is forced to sleep outside in a tent, and falls hopelessly in love with the kind and lovely Leslie, who is herself unfortunately and unrequitedly in love with Josh.

And then Josh violates the only stipulation in his care-taking contract with Isaac’s parents-–holding an all-out beer barrel bash that trashes the house and grounds and ends with Josh being arrested for brawling in the front yard, all on the night when little sister Lisa comes down with yet-another case of strep, and Isaac takes over for the clueless Josh, administering an instant strep test from his dad’s medicine bag and bringing her fever down--and all in time for Isaac’s parents to surprise them by coming home a day early.

It’s not the sort of rite-of-passage, coming-of-age event that any parents would knowingly opt for, but in Michael Rubens’ serio-comic story, Sons of the 613 (Clarion Books, 2012), Isaac does find his way toward manhood, gaining confidence as Josh intended and getting a better insight into what it means really to be a man.

“Sound like quite a time,” said Dad.

“Worst two weeks of my life,” I say. “And the best.”

I wish I could give my bar mitzvah speech again, Josh thinks later.

I’d say that I think there are different ways to be a man, that sometimes it means being brave and strong and aggressive, and sometimes it means thinking and caring and being responsible and seeing consequences. And everything in between all that.

Ruben’s narrative is drop-dead LOL comedic writing, but it is far more than just that. Manhood is more than just knowing how to handle a schoolyard fight or take down a bully. It’s about seeing into the person behind the responsible or brave or even foolhardy wacky front, to see what makes people, even his brave but self-destructive Jew-warrior older brother, the way they are. Isaac finally begins to see the way to manhood in his focused, devoted physician father, and in his own way, in his benighted brother. It’s a offbeat but real-world coming of age story that ultimately hits home.

Maturing fans of The Wimpy Kid books will laugh at the deft way Rubens’ humor nails middle school cool, while beginning to appreciate the gentle, understanding way he skewers not-so-observant Jewish mothers (Serving pork chops, Mom says, “Jesus, we’re terrible Jews.”), insecure, Mohawked redneck rowdies, and good-hearted exotic dancers while gently revealing their virtues as well. This is a highly-recommended read (Kirkus gives it a starred a review) for maturing middle readers, and for anyone who is making or has survived the transition from childhood to whatever maturity any of us can manage.

"One Pen Can Change the World:" Malala's Magic Pencil by Malala Yousafzai

When I was little I used to watch a TV show about a boy who had a magic pencil.If he was hungry, he drew a bowl of curry. He drew a little hero, always protecting people who needed help.

How I wanted a magic pencil, too!

Kids often wish for a magic pencil or magic wand or super powers, that they could be a star in the sports or movies, make school vacation last forever, or as Malala did, to keep her brothers out of her room, but like Malala Yousafzai, they soon find out that there's more to it than wishing.

For what Malala wished for most was just to go to school. The simple freedom for a girl to be allowed to begin middle school was being denied in her regions of Pakistan, and her parents' support and her private girls'school didn't keep her safe, and her reputation as a young blogger led to her being shot by a would-be assassin.

But Malala survived and bravely went on to be the world's advocate for freedom of access to education, becoming the youngest person ever to win the Nobel Peace Prize. In a way, she got her wish. Her words became her magic pencil to influence world opinion about education for girls and for all children.

"One child, one teacher, one book, and one pen can change the world, " she wrote.

Malala Yousafzair's book, Malala's Magic Pencil (Little, Brown and Company, 2017), engagingly  illustrated by the co-artists Keroscoot, describes in her own words how Malala became the world's advocate for girls and women's rights and why education is of prime importance in this world. The New York Times Review says this book is ...a triumph, for it is a story with hard truths, yet it is accessible for young children, an excellent book to begin conversations about world injustice with children."