Reel Life Starring Us

August 15, 2011

For eighth-grader Dina, being the new girl at school is a disaster.

Bewildered by her transition from popular girl to social outcast, Dina retreats behind her video camera. She hopes that the filter of the lens will help her decode life at her trendy new middle school. A school project with reigning "it girl" Chelsea seems to be a perfect chance for Dina to improve her social status. Meanwhile, Chelsea desperately harbors a secret that compels her to maintain the status quo among her exclusive peers even as she begins to question their occasionally cruel behavior. Writing in the alternating voices of Chelsea and Dina, Greenwald explores the perks and pitfalls of popularity, demonstrating how those on both sides of the popularity divide can be victims of people's misperceptions. While Dina's composure seems precocious at times, her practical perspective combined with her wry humor and Chelsea's increasingly astute reflections makes this very accessible to pre-and early teen readers. In the process of working together, however reluctantly, Chelsea and Dina gain insight about each other and themselves that readers will benefit from.

This funny, nuanced tale offers keen observations on middle-school life. (Fiction. 10-14)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

January 1, 2012

Gr 5-8-When eighth-grader Dina arrives at her new middle school on Long Island, she is ready to be popular, just as she was at her old school. The kids at Rockwood Hills find her very uncool, though, and fill her backpack with potato chips whenever she isn't looking. Dina figures that if she gets popular Chelsea to befriend her, life will be perfect. When a teacher pairs Chelsea with Dina to create a video project for the school's 50th-anniversary gala, Dina is sure she's hit the jackpot. Sadly, Chelsea's life is no longer as perfect as everyone else thinks as her banker dad has been fired from his job, and the project makes things go from bad to worse for her. Alternating chapters from each girl's point of view reveal their mirrored struggles. The school project is the perfect backdrop against which to explore perceptions about friendship, popularity, responsibility, and morality in this heartwarming novel. An engaging and interesting read.-Terry Ann Lawler, Phoenix Public Library, AZ

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.