After a really, really bad incident got Charlie C. Cooper got expelled from her old school, forced her family to move, and had her parents sending her to a shrink, she's ready to start her seventh grade as a new person with a clean slate. Preferably a new person with lots of friends who get her high-fashion sense and can appreciate her talents. Unfortunately, the world (in the form of Dr. Scales her shrink) is against her. Before he'll end their sessions together, he gives Charlie a mission: find the most bullied, friendless, hopeless, laughed-at, lonely girl and be her friend. That girl is Marta the Farta, who eats her lunch in the girl's bathroom every day to avoid being teased. Charlie knows if she befriends Marta, she'll be an outcast. It's social suicide. But she has to prove that she's changed if she wants to end her sessions with Dr. Scales and get back to her normal life. Is Charlie ready to change and will anyone believe that she's changed?

CONFESSIONS OF A SO-CALLED MIDDLE CHILD by Maria T. Lennon is laugh-out-loud funny, touching, and hopeful as Charlie tries to re-invent herself for seventh grade. The story hooks the reader right from the beginning with Charlie's irreverent, comical voice. By page four, I was laughing out loud even as I cringed at Charlie's 'really, really bad thing'. Written in first person point of view really helps capture Charlie's unique voice and automatically pulls the reader into Charlie's world. There is a great conversational style to the story that really makes it feel as if Charlie is speaking to the reader which is simply fantastic because by the end of the story, you wish Charlie were your friend.

One of the best themes in CONFESSIONS OF A SO-CALLED MIDDLE CHILD is the ability to overcome past mistakes. The mistake Charlie made that got her into trouble was indeed really bad even if I did laugh (I'm not going to spoil the surprise. You'll have to read for yourself.) Charlie struggles to overcome this label that been slapped on her with this one event. She struggles to overcome people's perceptions of her when they learn about it, but more importantly, we see her struggle against falling into the same behavior and actions that got her into trouble in the first place. This is a fantastic story about overcoming the label society puts on you as well as falling into being the person people expect you to be.

CONFESSIONS OF A SO-CALLED MIDDLE CHILD by Maria T. Lennon is an irreverent, spunky, confessional story that unleashes the forces of Charlie C. Cooper on the world and the world is better for it. Fans of The Dork Diaries will love Charlie and her unique voice.