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Overview
Mia Fullerton has entered her freshman year at St. Hilary’s with a goal: to lose her nickname “Mia the Meek,” and soar into a confident high school career. Unfortunately, her transformation is made harder by her English-teacher mom, bratty little brother, already popular nemesis, and new neighbor. In telling her story, Mia proves to be a witty, candid, and interesting fourteen-year-old.Synopsis
Mia Fullerton has entered her freshman year at St. Hilary s with a goal: to lose her nickname Mia the Meek, and soar into a confident high school career. Unfortunately, her transformation is made harder by her English-teacher mom, bratty little brother, already popular nemesis, and new neighbor. In telling her story, Mia proves to be a witty, candid, and interesting fourteen-year-old.
VOYA
Starting ninth grade at Catholic co-ed St. Hilary's, Mia reads a self-help book on overcoming shyness. Emboldened, she runs for class president, winning not only the presidency but also Jake, the popular, hunky-but-thickheaded sweetie of Cassie, the class alpha female. Mia also attracts the interest of Tim. He has looks as well as brains, but even after a kiss when Tim's tongue work proves superior to Jake's, Mia spurns him because they are competitive. On the way to sorting out her love life, Mia copes with a ditzy mother, a bratty brother, a fight with her best girlfriend, and a running battle with archenemy, Cassie. Mia also wins the final point in a Quiz Bowl, organizes an unorthodox but wildly successful school dance, and of course, recovers from her shyness and chooses the right guy. The first in a projected series, this episodic novel is peopled with formulaic characters who trip through their paces with minimal depth or motivation. Readers will strain to suspend disbelief when Mia's mother, who teaches Mia's English class, tells all about Mia's potty training or when Sister Donovan pulls out a "giant aspirin bottle and her rosary," pours "a small handful of aspirin into her mouth," and begins praying. It is difficult to credit that Mia's smart best girlfriend is so nerdy that she believes touchdowns are scored in basketball. Reluctant preteen readers going into schools like St. Hilary's might finish this book, but it is difficult imagining its appeal to a wider audience.
Editorials
KLIATT -
Boggess has experience teaching middle school students at a Catholic school in the Midwest (the setting for the Mia series). Her heroine Mia is smart and shy, a girl who is hoping she can have a personality makeover as she starts high school—exuding more confidence—no longer Mia the Meek. Her friends "help" her, nominating her for class president. And she wins! She is on the team to compete in the Academic Quiz Bowl (her strength is literature, her weakness is math). She starts dating Jake, whom she has admired for years; yet her aversion/attraction for the new boy in town, Tim, who moved in next door, is confusing. This is basically a funny story, in a screwball comedy kind of way. All the worst kinds of embarrassing moments happen to Mia. For instance, because of the small school she must have her own mother as her English teacher, and on the first day her mother launches into the story she always tells about the power of books by describing how her daughter Mia was so taken by the book Petey and the Potty, it helped her get toilet trained. Only this year, Mia is one of the students hearing this story, aghast. Other humor is also kind of earthy, about Mia's horrible retainer flying out of her mouth into the cafeteria garbage, about vomiting at just the wrong moment, of having to pee when stuck in her Joan of Arc armor before a class presentation. However, Mia has two cute boys interested in her, and she is the class president, after all, so things are going well for her when all is said and done. Girls will enjoy the humor. And it is a relief to have a smart heroine who is also unsophisticated, just as a balance to the numerous chick lit books about rich prep-schoolgirls.VOYA -
Starting ninth grade at Catholic co-ed St. Hilary's, Mia reads a self-help book on overcoming shyness. Emboldened, she runs for class president, winning not only the presidency but also Jake, the popular, hunky-but-thickheaded sweetie of Cassie, the class alpha female. Mia also attracts the interest of Tim. He has looks as well as brains, but even after a kiss when Tim's tongue work proves superior to Jake's, Mia spurns him because they are competitive. On the way to sorting out her love life, Mia copes with a ditzy mother, a bratty brother, a fight with her best girlfriend, and a running battle with archenemy, Cassie. Mia also wins the final point in a Quiz Bowl, organizes an unorthodox but wildly successful school dance, and of course, recovers from her shyness and chooses the right guy. The first in a projected series, this episodic novel is peopled with formulaic characters who trip through their paces with minimal depth or motivation. Readers will strain to suspend disbelief when Mia's mother, who teaches Mia's English class, tells all about Mia's potty training or when Sister Donovan pulls out a "giant aspirin bottle and her rosary," pours "a small handful of aspirin into her mouth," and begins praying. It is difficult to credit that Mia's smart best girlfriend is so nerdy that she believes touchdowns are scored in basketball. Reluctant preteen readers going into schools like St. Hilary's might finish this book, but it is difficult imagining its appeal to a wider audience.School Library Journal
Gr 6–9
Mia Fullerton has earned her nickname because of her timidity among her middle school classmates. Now, as high school begins, she is determined to change her image by following the instructions in a self-help book, and inadvertently agrees to run for freshman class president at St. Hilary's. She wins over her classmates by telling them to vote for "Mia the Meek, Queen of the Freaks." Meanwhile, she is surprised by the attention that Jake, a boy she's had her eye on for years, is paying to her since she got rid of her glasses and braces. However, she keeps finding herself daydreaming of Tim, her cocky new neighbor. Overall, there is too much going on in this novel. Mia is busy dating Jake, playing one-on-one basketball with Tim, maintaining her grades, arguing with her parents, preparing for the Academic Bowl, coordinating class-president responsibilities, and suffering through having her mother as her English teacher. The story is full of clichéd embarrassments, including dropping her retainer in the cafeteria trash, falling down in the school bathroom, and setting the science lab on fire. Additionally, some of the dialogue is unrealistic for ninth graders. Still, Mia is a strong character who is brainy and competitive and has the same worries as many girls. Fans of the good-girl-finding-her-way genre might enjoy this one.
—Karen HothCopyright 2006 Reed Business Information.