Friday, June 28, 2013

Guy Friday- Student Council Smackdown

The Classroom Student Council Smackdown! Mellom, Robin. Student Council Smackdown: The Classroom #2 
25 June 2013, Disney Hyperion
Copy provided by Deb Shapiro and Company.

Libby and Cindy are facing off for seventh grade student council president. They have always gone against each other, although Libby lost last year due to her campaign platform of no white board markers, but the rules are different in middle school. There are application letters, debates, and THREE people must run, or there is no position. Since no one will go up against the two (especially since Team Cindy! Has customized shirts for every day), Trevor agrees to run… and lose. He knows he can lose, since after his extremely brief stint of popularity for pouring pop on Corey’s head, he has been unpopular. A couple of incidents have led everyone to believe that he is behind the vile scent wafting through the school. The election heats up, Trevor’s life becomes more complicated, and a dark side of Westside Middle School is revealed--- and captured by the documentary film crew on assignment there.
Strengths: The writing is briskly paced yet understandable. The characters are believable but slightly exaggerated for successful comic effect. The pictures make this a notebook novel, and those are always popular. The first one is on my list to order for fall.
Weaknesses: There is a lot of pondering of popularity—what it means to be popular, how to get popular, how to stay popular. I don’t know that middle school students are so deliberate in their pursuit of popularity. Also, our student council has about ten members, and there are so few people that ANYONE can be in it. So this is hard for me to understand!


Meet Molly Decker, 7th Grader!
 
Here are some fun facts about Molly:
 
* Molly has blue highlights in her hair --- currently Chunky Cobalt Number 7, to be exact
* “Get on with it, already” is Molly’s life motto
* Molly hates glitter and pep
* Molly is the daughter of Westside Middle School’s Vice Principal
 
Read more about Molly and the rest of the Westside Middle School gang in The Classroom: Student Council Smackdown! by Robin Mellom, illustrated by Stephen Gilpin.

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