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.
Fans of Harriet the Spy and Mean Girls will cheer when they
meet Charlie C. Cooper, reformed bully, gifted hacker,
slightly misguided fashionista, and so-called middle child!
This debut tween novel stars the hilariously fresh Charlie
Cooper as she tries to ditch her middle-child reputation and
make cool friends at her new school in Los Angeles.
But being cool isn't as easy as it looks—especially when her
dandruff-ridden psychologist tasks Charlie with finding the
biggest loser in school and becoming her friend. In public.