I had a crazy busy June, so I decided to stick with a simple and fun trilogy that I found on Book Outlet, and thought looked fun.
I'm now at 26/60 finished books for my 2018 Reading Challenge! Check it out here - https://www.goodreads.com/challenges/7501-2018-reading-challenge
You'll find each book's review and synopsis below.
1) THE SECRET LANGUAGE OF GIRLS - BY: FRANCES O'ROARK DOWELL - 247 PAGES - 3/5 STARS
MY THOUGHTS: This series will take you back to those middle school days where everything became so uncertain. You didn't know who was your friend, how to make friends, who to be friends with, what you should wear, etc.
Before you read this, do note that it's "for Ages 8-12", but it's also by the same author of Dovey Coe, and that was a really good book. It just gave me all the feels, made me laugh a little and smile because I could really remember what it was like to be in sixth grade based on all the little things that happened to the characters.
It also makes you really cherish the friendships you still have. Every friendship has its ups and downs. There's just no way of escaping that because we're all human. What really plays into the character development is how we work to fix those friendships and what we're willing to sacrifice or forgive.
If you have children, this would be a good series for them to read. If you're just looking for a nice trip down memory lane, it would be good for that too.
SYNOPSIS FROM GOODREADS: In the old days, when Kate had no interest in romance, she never cared what other people thought. Now, it appeared, love was turning her into a rotten human being.
Eleven-year-old Kate Faber wishes she could talk to her best friend, Marylin, about this. But Marylin is no longer her best friend. Or is she? Kate and Marylin were always the kind of best friends who lived on the same block for their entire lives, and who agreed on what kinds of boys were worth kissing and who should be invited to their sleepover. The kind of best friends who didn't need words to talk, but who always just knew.
But lately Marylin has started to think that Kate can be a bit babyish. And Kate thinks Marylin is acting like a big snob. Somehow nothing is the same, but secretly Kate and Marylin both wish it could be...
2) THE KIND OF FRIENDS WE USED TO BE - BY: FRANCES O'ROARK DOWELL - 234 PAGES - 3/5 STARS
MY THOUGHTS: You know that feeling where you think back on the friendships you've had and wonder what happened and why it isn't as strong as it used to be? This book has a good portrayal of those feelings and what it takes to work through that.
It also introduces the whole popular, nerdy, normal, etc. cliches of school. What was nice to see from this book though was how some characters from different cliches mingled and got along just as well, if not better than within their own cliche.
Character development was also a strong point of this book, all of which led up to the third book.
SYNOPSIS FROM GOODREADS: Kate and Marylin are best friends forever....
Well, except for last year when they weren't friends anymore....
And except for this year when they both want to be friends again, but just don't know how.
But the thing is, even as they are trying to fix their broken friendship, they are becoming more and more unalike. And that's becoming harder and harder to deal with. Well, it would be a lot easier if Kate would just take some of Marylin's fashion advice. Ballet flats would look so much better than those big black combat boots. Feminine. But Kate doesn't want to be feminine. She wants to learn guitar and write her own songs; she wants to be the exact opposite of the middle-school cheerleaders. And maybe if Marylin would just stick up for herself and not get bullied by Mazie (the Meanest Cheerleader Ever) into judging anyone who's the least bit different, Marylin and Kate could be real friends again.
Funny, realistic, and incredibly insightful, Edgar Award-winning novelist Frances O'Roark Dowell explores the shifting terrain of middle-school friendship in the companion book to the well-loved The Secret Language of Girls.
3) THE SOUND OF YOUR VOICE - BY: FRANCES O'ROARK DOWELL - 232 PAGES - 3/5 STARS
MY THOUGHTS: In the final book of the series you get to graduate up to "Ages 10-14." But seriously, this is still a good series to read at any age.
This is the part of life where you get a boyfriend, in seventh grade. That happened to everyone, right? So now with the whole growing up pains you get the questioning yourself over a boy and how you should talk to him, act around him, etc. It was fun to see the character development during the times where they were trying to find a solution to their friendship drama while also building their relationships, not to mention trying to be better friends to each other. After all, this is still a series about two friends, fighting and struggling just to be that.
Something cool about this series is that the chapter titles are brief descriptions on what happens or a life lesson that the chapter is about. I always enjoy when books do that because it keeps things a little more interesting than just 1, 2, 3.
SYNOPSIS FROM GOODREADS: In the conclusion to the bestselling Secret Language of Girls trilogy, Marylin and Kate find that boys can be just as complicated as friendship.
Marylin knows that, as a middle school cheerleader, she has certain obligations. She has to smile as she walks down the hall, be friends with the right people, and keep her manicure in tip-top shape. But Marylin is surprised to learn there are also rules about whom she’s allowed to like—and Benjamin, the student body president, is deemed unnacceptable. But maybe there is a way to convince the cheerleaders that her interest in Benjamin is for their own good—maybe she’ll pretend that she’s using him to get new cheerleading uniforms!
Kate, of course, finds this ludicrous. She is going to like whom she likes, thank you very much. And she just so happens to be spending more time than ever with Matthew Holler. But even a girl who marches to the beat of her own guitar strings can play the wrong notes—and are she and Matthew even playing the same song? She’s just not sure. So when Matthew tells Kate that the school’s Audio Lab needs funding from the student government, she decides to do what she can to help him get it.But there isn’t enough money to go around, and it soon becomes clear that only one of the two girls can get her way. Ultimately, though, is it even her way? Or are both girls pushing for something they never really wanted in the first place?
I read some more diverse books in July, so stay tuned for those soon! If you have any questions or want to discuss any of my reads just let me know!
