February 15, 2023
Ardent fandom meets friendship drama. Summertime and the living is easy: It's peanut butter-and-blueberry jam sandwiches and fun days swimming at the pool for Iris and BFF Leeza. Two besties living across the street from each other, they spent their childhoods side by side, gossiping about and listening to singer Lola Bay. After starting a fan club for their favorite star, the sixth graders connect with seventh grader Dana. This creates a rift between narrator Iris and Leeza, as the former idolizes Dana's vast body of Lola Bay knowledge, and the latter, less enthralled, decides to get involved in other activities. Further trouble ensues when Dana, who has a controlling personality, convinces Iris to use her mother's credit card without permission to purchase coveted Lola Bay concert tickets. Things escalate to a crisis point when Dana betrays Iris in a very public way, forcing Iris to face the truth, recognize who really has her back, and stand up for herself. This novel focused on friendship deals with emotional abuse and family ties during the often stressful transition from elementary to middle school. The conversational tone is reader friendly, and many young people will recognize the issues that are explored, from shifting social status to online bullying. Most characters default to White. An accessible relationship-centered novel exploring the perils of tween friendships. (Fiction. 10-13)
COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
February 27, 2023
Upon entering sixth grade, longtime best friends Iris and Leeza start an unofficial fan club dedicated to 17-year-old Lola Bay, their favorite celebrity actor and singer. The club attracts classmate Melanie, who tries to take over leadership, and seventh grader Dana, who helps to halt Melanie’s quest for power. Iris, who views Dana as a role model, believes all their problems are solved until Leeza, who harbors private jealousy and suspicion about Dana, quits the club. Leeza soon makes new friends on the volleyball team, while Iris spends her days with Dana. But Dana’s idea of time well spent involves pranking Melanie, buying Lola Bay tickets with Iris’s mom’s credit card, and starting a fake fundraiser in Iris’s name. After Dana’s actions come to a head, Iris must face the consequences and attempt to repair her relationship with Leeza. While Dana’s motivations for her manipulations may be murky, Iris’s vulnerability to Dana’s tactics, her genuine remorse for her actions, and her love for Lola are plainly rendered, making for a distinctly real-life portrait of one middle schooler finding her way in a new and ever-changing environment. Ages 10–up.