Only Girls Allowed (Pink Locker Society)
Gr 5-8–Jemma and three other eighth-grade girls are invited to join the elite Pink Locker Society by way of a pink door in the back of their lockers. The PLS is a secret organization designed so that members can post quality advice on its website to girls at their school who have pressing questions about periods, bras, and boys. Jemma, the narrator, is unsure if she would be good at dispensing such advice, since she has neither started her period nor had a boyfriend. Rather, she has a desperate crush on Forrest, whom she has known for years, but who now makes her tongue-tied. Regretfully, he fancies Taylor, a girl who makes videos of others in embarrassing situations. Eager to impress him, Jemma ignores a basic rule and risks everything by leading Forrest through the pink door into the society's secret office. Communication is a central theme as a hacker brings down the website, and a pilot video about the hacking incident is shown at a school assembly, bringing the PLS to the attention of Principal Finklestein, who is not pleased. He meets with the four girls and their parents, takes away their pink laptop, and threatens to suspend them unless they end the potentially inappropriate act of dispensing advice to other children. With its own engaging website, chick-lit appeal, and sequels to come, this is a promising series debut.–Susan W. Hunter, Riverside Middle School, Springfield, VT. (c) Copyright 2010.  Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc.  No redistribution permitted.