Sixth-Grade Glommers, Norks, and Me
Grade 5-7–Allie Kimball is starting Grover Cleveland Middle School, and nothing is the same as it was in elementary school. Her friend Tamara is making her feel like a "nork" (someone beyond both nerd and dork, in Allie's hilarious vocabulary notes) for being overly unconcerned about her clothes and messy room. Worse yet, Tamara is turning into a "glommer" (a clingy friend) to stuck-up Renee, and making fun of Allie's soccer mates. Allie slowly begins to realize that she has changed too, even in how she feels about her longtime crush and other boys whom she formerly found dorky. This story is a hoot, full of real kinds of middle school misadventures centered around a protagonist who has a kind heart and a tremendous gift for descriptive language. She's willing to look up meanings for words teachers give her, but sometimes she has a meaning and needs to make up a word to fit it, so each chapter includes her relevant gems. She could start a new trend with "stealth freakies" ("a feeling that comes before dread..."), and "road chicken" ("someone who can't decide which side to be on, and ends up standing in the middle of the road...which is, of course, where the cars are"). Funny and appealing.–Paula J. LaRue, Van Wert City Schools, OHCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.