Skip to main content

Review: Jojo Vs. Middle School

By

 

Jojo Vs. Middle School
By Joy McCullough and Veeda Bybee
New York: Aladdin, 2025. Fiction. 184 pages.

Jojo's middle school experience is not off to an auspicious start when her mom forgets to wake her up for her first day of school and her mom's boyfriend's cat vomits all over the first day of school outfit that she set aside. Did I mention that her mom's boyfriend is the viral cat influencer Mr. Meow, so he has A LOT of cats. To avoid being dropped off in the Catmobile, Jojo races out the door to catch her brother for a ride only to discover when it's pointed out to her by an elementary school bully in the middle of a crowded hallway, that one of the cats has also ripped a hole in her leggings and she's been showing off her cat-themed underwear to the whole school. When she flees during lunch to the only empty section of the school she can find, the locker room of an old abandoned gym, she finds three other students there who feel just as awkward about their own first day humiliations. Will Jojo be able to make friends even with everything that went wrong?

Middle school is a particularly difficult time for many kids, who will see themselves in the pages of these four students who are trying to forget their first day humiliations. Give this charming tale to upper elementary aged students to get them ready for middle school, or early middle school students who will see themselves in the pages. For kids who finish this relatively short novel quickly, and are waiting on pens and needles for the second book, they won't have to wait long. Book two is set to publish in June 2025.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Stand Tall by Joan Bauer

By DeeDee
Stand Tall By Siena Siegel by Joan Bauer Putnam, 2002, 182 pgs Realistic Fiction Tree is 12 years old and over 6 feet tall. That would be great if he were a basketball player, but he is not. Dealing with his unusual size is not Tree's only challenge. Tree's parents have recently gone through a divorce, and his grandfather has had his leg amputated as the result of an old Vietnam War injury. The strength of this book is the characterizations. All of the main characters are dimensional and sympathetic. Bauer sets the characters in real and often funny family situations. Best of all is the character of Tree. He is boy with a heart to match his stature. This is a great book for boys or girls ages 9-12, as a read aloud or for individual reading. This book could also be a good Rx book for children whose families are going through divorce, or for anyone who feels like they don't fit in.
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: The New Girl

By
The New Girl By Cassandra Calin New York: Graphix, 2024. Comic. 261 pages. 12-year-old Lia and her family have just moved from Romania to Montreal, and she's doing her best to keep up with the changes. But, she's homesick. She misses the rest of her family, her friends, and her favorite Romanian treats. She doesn't speak French and her English is shaky, which makes it hard to make friends, even in her international immersion class. And she's dealing with super painful menstrual cramps every month. But before long, Lia starts to hit her stride. She befriends the other bilingual girls in her class, she gets a spot as the artist for her school's magazine, and even has a new crush -- Julien. Though she may be the new girl, Lia is starting to fit in. This slice of life graphic novel is an adorable choice for middle grade readers and young teens. Lia is a likable protagonist and readers will have little difficulty relating to her adjustment to school. The text speaks to a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: Cincinnati Lee, Curse Breaker

By
  Cincinnati Lee, Curse Breaker By Heidi Heilig New York: Greenwillow Books, 2025. Fiction. 291 pages. Thanks to Cincinnati Lee's no good, dirty rotten, artifact stealing great great great grandfather, Cincinnati's family is now cursed and Cincinnati feels like it's up to her to break the curse. Which involves trying to steal the artifacts back from museums that her grandfather robbed from graves and archeological sites around the world and return them to their countries of origin. But when Cincinnati's first artifact stealing mission goes awry, she decides it might be more effective to steal an all-powerful artifact herself that she can use to break the curse - The Spear of Destiny. Unfortunately her race for the spear will pit her against art smugglers and thieves intent on finding the ancient artifact themselves. If you are looking for an Indiana Jones read-alike, this is the perfect for you! Heavy on the adventure with similar levels of mysticism to those seen in th...
Post a Comment
Read more