#ThrowbackThursday: Middle Grade Mini-Reviews 2

Allie Finkle’s Rules for Girls: Moving Day by Meg Cabot

Allie Finkle is a fourth-grade geode collector and best friend of crybaby Mary Kay until her parents announce that they are moving across town, meaning she will have to go to a new school, make new best friends, and get rid of her geode collection. Allie, determined to not move to a possibly haunted house, does everything she can to stop the move.

I absolutely LOVED this book. Allie Finkle was a hilarious protagonist with sass and spunk. All of the characters were very realistic and every situation Allie found herself in was fun and interesting! After reading this book, I’m definitely interested in reading more books in the series to see what happens to Allie. I give this book five out of five stars.

From the Notebooks of a Middle School Princess by Meg Cabot

Middle schooler Olivia Grace’s world is turned upside when she finds out her sister is Princess Mia Thermopolis, meaning she is also a princess of Genovia. Olivia Grace’s dream comes true when she has the chance to meet her dad and live with Mia and him in Genovia. Things get complicated when her guardians refuse to release custody.

I think younger readers who have never read The Princess Diaries series will enjoy this book, however I had some problems with it. I think the protagonist, Olivia Grace, is adorable, but doesn’t have as much personality as some of Meg Cabot’s other characters. I think most of the book was a sequence of events used to set up the rest of the series. That being said, if you read the final Princess Diaries book, I’d probably skip this one because this book is pretty much identical to the ending of Royal Wedding. I give this book three out of five stars.

Sincerely by Courtney Shienmel. 

Sincerely by Courtney Shienmel consists of two books (Sincerely, Sophie and Sincerely, Katie) and follows two 11-year-old pen pals, Sophie and Katie. In Sophie’s story, Sophie deals with her best friend ditching her for a different group of girls and her parents’ divorce. Then, Katie struggles to gain attention from her parents and best friend while organizing a charity run for an earthquake in Mexico.

When I picked up Sincerely, I was expecting a fluffy and lighthearted book, but it was much deeper than that. Both Sophie and Katie struggled with extremely real problems and both of their stories were very character driven. Every character was multi-dimensional and greatly added to the story. This book does have one minor swear word, so if you are a parent and aren’t comfortable with this, then I wouldn’t recommend buying this book for your child. I rate this book four out of five stars.

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