Pretenders

September 9, 2013
Noble High is a pressure cooker of a school where excellence is expected and truly outstanding freshmen have a shot at making the “Phoenix Five.” As they start at Noble, aspiring actress Sheridan, basketball player Duffy, beautiful and driven Vanessa, home-schooled genius Lily, and Jagger (who doesn’t “have time for a last name”) have been assigned to keep journals. Initially resistant, they succumb to the lure of writing down their feelings, chronicling crushes, worries, and—increasingly—compromises, confusions, and corner-cutting. In this series opener, Harrison (the Clique series) makes the characters distinct and lively, starting from the isolation of day one and effectively building up their interactions and the resulting complications. By book’s end the students are barely into their first semester, and readers don’t yet know how they ended up with the coveted recognition of being named to the Phoenix Five or which one of them leaked the diaries that expose them as “phonies” and pretenders. Harrison will need to write fast: this book ends with a lot of questions that readers will want answered. Ages 13–up. Agent: Richard Abate, 3 Arts Entertainment.

September 1, 2013
A new series with a Gossip Girl-esque conceit from the best-selling author of The Clique. X-Phonie, one of Noble High's Phoenix Five freshmen operating under a code name, breaks into their teacher's safe to reveal the sordid (or not-so-sordid in this case) journals of the school's most infamous students. First up is Vanessa, the brown-skinned, green-eyed girl who's always in it to win it. Her hefty footnotes often outweigh her journal entries. Hipster Jagger's parents were arrested, and now he lives alone in the back of a pet store. Basketballer Duffy is so much the object of Lily's obsessions...er...affections that she steals his Nikes and keeps a running tab of the souvenirs she's collected. Finally there's drama queen Sheridan, who lives in a fantasy world imagining she's Massie Block from The Clique. The first installment winds by turns in and out of the very clean world of the five teens' journals. Harrison nails the voices of her female protagonists but struggles with those of her male ones, particularly Duffy, who still plays the Wii when most boys his age would have graduated to a more age-appropriate gaming system. Little happens beyond introducing the characters and their interests/crushes/interactions with one another, with the result that this feels like a tepid attempt to recreate the bawdy ridiculousness of Gossip Girl. A lukewarm retread of the snarky teen chick-lit of yore. (Romance. 12 & up)

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October 1, 2013

Gr 7-10-A motley crew of high-school freshmen have one thing in common-they are all pretending to be people they're not. Sheridan Spencer is a lonely drama queen who boosts her confidence by channeling celebrities. Andrew Duffy's dreams of making the basketball varsity team are shattered when his parents reveal their financial troubles. Lily Bader-Huffman wants to break free of her overbearing parents and get a social life. Vanessa Riley is an extreme overachiever whose parents are on the verge of divorce. And Jagger is the mysterious, emancipated loner with a big secret. As in a Garry Marshall film, their lives intersect. Vanessa crushes on Lily's gay best friend. Lily likes Duffy, but he seems to be getting cozy with Sheridan. Sheridan's best friend is ditching her for Jagger. Their first-person narratives are told through journal entries as credit for an English class. It is hinted at early on that the journals (supposedly under lock and key) will eventually get revealed to the whole school, just not in this first book. The novel ends on a cliff-hanger. Fans of Harrison's "Clique" books (Little, Brown) will love this book with its melodrama and chaste scandal. A fast-paced read with surprisingly compelling characters, Pretenders is a good recommendation for middle schoolers looking to read up, but who are not quite ready for, "Gossip Girl" (Little, Brown).-Kimberly Garnick Giarratano, Rockaway Township Public Library, NJ

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2013
Grades 9-12 Fans of Harrison's The Clique novels will not be disappointed by this series starter, which exposes the scandalous truth behind five high-school freshmen chosen to receive a special excellence award. The conceit is simple: this book is a compilation of these students' journals, written as an English project that was to remain ungraded and unread, but was stolen and distributed to everyone as proof that the things we believe in aren't real. What follows is a soapy drama that exposes the tumultuous, insecure core of many outwardly successful teens who lose themselves trying to be perfect, keep everyone happy, and have it all. While some subplots are less believable, readers should find at least one character to identify with, making it even more cringe worthy when they self-destruct. Though they represent types, Harrison's treatment of the five resists simple dismissal, and their voices remain individual through their journaling styles. And which of the five students is the one who published the journals? Readers will be on the hook to figure it out in a sequel.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)