Teen Fiction - Choices & Transitions, Teen Fiction - Girls & Young Women, Teen Fiction - School

Aristobrats

Name: Aristobrats
Author: Jennifer Solow
ISBN: 9781402242588

by Jennifer Solow

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Overview

It's all about the Attitude

Parker Bell knows the secret to beauty is pretty simple—wearing the right clothes isn't as important as how you feel in them. Popularity is like that too. It's all about attitude. You have to picture who you want to be and then just imagine that's who you already are.

This year Parker and her three best friends have made their way to the top of the populadder at Wallingford Academy. And they're ready to use their Aristobrat status to help spread positive vibes throughout the school. But when the girls are assigned to produce the seriously lame school webcast, their popularity plummets! Will this tragedy destroy the girls' status? Or their friendship? Or both?

Synopsis

It's all about the Attitude

Publishers Weekly

Aristobrats are legacies at "Wally," the exclusive private school that Parker's mother can barely afford. At the start of eighth grade, the most crucial year of her life ("If you ruled eighth grade the rest of your life was pretty much golden"), Parker and her three best friends, the Lylas, are atop the popularity ladder and Parker is poised to get together with Tribb, "total front cover of Hottery Barn." But the Lylas' rank is put in jeopardy when they are chosen to produce the school webcast, a task reserved for the smart but unpopular "Einsteins." While the girls' lives are consumed with coining perfect Facebook status updates and scoring designer clothes, their use of exaggerated tween slanguage gives Solow's story a tongue-in-cheek quality ("It's such a cringe that I'm going to have to see my new haircut on everyone sooner or later"). Nevertheless, major plot points--Parker possibly having to leave Wally for financial reasons and the Lylas' desperation to remain on top--run a predictable course. Ages 10 13. (Sept.)

About the Author, Jennifer Solow

Jennifer Solow is the acclaimed author of The Booster, and well known for the infamous "Wendy" Snapple campaign. As a professional advertiser, she has worked with Spike Jonze, Spike Lee, and Richard Avedon, among others. The Aristobrats is her first middle grade novel.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly

School Library Journal

Gr 5–7—Parker Bell has everything going for her as she begins eighth grade at the Wallingford Academy: a great tan, an impeccable Facebook page, designer clothing, perfect make-up, and the attention of an equally stunning boy. She and her three friends have earned their position at the top of the populadder with their long list of rules set to ensure perfection and admiration. Their status is jeopardized when the headmistress assigns Parker and her friends the task of producing the school's conservative webcasts, a job normally done by a group of nobodies. Spending hours in the basement production studio seriously cuts down on the four friends' glamorous life. Frustrated, they decide to produce an unusual webcast and must deal with the consequences. Despite the concluding positive message, which is not to care so much about status or what others think of you, the book may leave readers feeling disappointed. They get little opportunity to see the protagonists change for the better, giving the story an ultimately shallow resonance.—Mindy Whipple, West Jordan Library, UT

Kirkus Reviews

Parker and her best friends Kiki, Ikea and Plum are looking forward to starting eighth grade at the top of the populadder at their exclusive prep school. Then they're saddled with the task of producing the school webcast, a job that typically goes to the class nerds. No amount of pleading can get them out of their duties. The girls decide that if they can't quit, they'll get themselves fired, so they set out to produce an outrageous show. When the show airs, it's mortification nation and a plummet rather than a vague saunter down the social ladder. The themes of loyalty and remaining true to one's own style are both present and positive, but the overabundance of middle-school slang and brand-name dropping often gets in the way of the bigger story. The girls' unerring yet realistic kindness and loyalty to each other set this apart from the too-prevalent trope that positions popular girls as the mean girls. Appealing for fans of The Clique, but not ah-mazing. (Chick lit. 10-12)