The Classroom Student Council Smackdown! by Robin Mellom
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The Classroom: Student Council Smackdown! By Robin Mellom is a fun glimpse into the lives and politics of middle school life. Trevor Jones is tasked to help his best friend Libby win her campaign for seventh grade class president. This had been his job since she started running for office in elementary school, but this is their first middle school campaign and Libby wants to get it right. Although she's extremely organized, after a long talk with her cousin, Libby realizes that the campaign has to be cool—not the same old stuff. And as she gulps down bottles of ranch dressing to calm her nerves, she realizes her usual rival, Cindy Applegate, is going all out with glitter, pep and poof to win this election.
Meanwhile, Trevor is having problems of his own. After an interesting incident with orange soda at the fall dance, he is climbing up the popularity ladder. However, Corey Long will not stand for it after what Trevor did to him at the dance. Strange occurrences keep happening to Trevor, sending his popularity status plummeting. He steps down as Libby's campaign manager, but not before Molly Decker, the school's “who cares” girl is brought in. While she insists that Libby run a negative campaign, it all comes crashing down when Trevor and Libby must face each other at the debate when Trevor becomes another candidate for president.
This book is written in an interesting way—while it has the structure of traditional chapters, it also includes interviews and other pieces from the documentary—the basis of the book. Along with these interview scripts, the book also contains a number of great illustrations, “archive footage” and other materials from the notebooks of the documentary's subjects. Although it takes some getting used to, the format does serve a purpose to tell the story from all sides, making it an interesting look at how popularity can influence middle school politics.
*Reviewer received the book for free through Goodreads First Reads
View all my reviews
No comments:
Post a Comment