Super Dorks (Pack of Dorks #3)

Vrabel, Beth. Super Dorks (Pack of Dorks #3)
1 May 2018, Skypony Press
Copy provided by the publisher

Lucy is no longer friends with Tom and Becky after Pack of Dorks and Camp Dorks, but they are still attending fifth grade with her. Lucy does have a small group of friends that includes Sheldon, who loves dinosaurs; April, who used to eat boogers; Amanda, who has anger management issues; and Sam, who is very invested in gymnastics. Lucy has Miss Parker, who is a bit quirky and into LARPing, but her friends are in other classes, which doesn't get the year off to a good start. It doesn't help when  Sam saves twins from being run over by a car and breaks his arm, perhaps ending his gymnastics career, April catches a bike thief, Sheldon saves endangered turtles on the school grounds. Everyone else is doing heroic things, so Lucy decides to run for student government. Since Sam is getting so much attention, especially from the popular Tom and Becky, Lucy nominates him, and signs herself up as his running mate. As the election plans start, and secrets about her friends are revealed, Lucy starts to doubt her plan. Will she be able to make an impact in her world and still keep her few but loyal friends?
Strengths: I love the message that you don't have to have a lot of friends; you just need really good ones. To me, five friends is a lot. Lucy is not afraid to step out of her comfort zone when she is in search of something that matters to her, and she is supportive of her friends (especially Amanda, whose mother has abandoned her) even though she isn't especially respectful of Sam's wishes. The inclusion of the efforts to save the turtles was interesting.
Weaknesses: Something about the way Lucy describes her friends and their dorkitude (dorkosity) seems a half bubble off to me. I suspect that Ms. Vrabel was actually a very cool kid in fifth grade!
What I really think: This has a lot of attitudes and occurrences that are more suited to elementary schools, where this would be an essential purchase, but I haven't bought these for middle school even though Vrabel's other work is very popular.