Saturday, June 06, 2009

Book Review: We Are So Crashing Your Bar Mitzvah!! by Fiona Rosenbloom

Book: We Are SO Crashing Your Bar Mitzvah!!
Author: Fiona Rosenbloom
Published: 2007

Time: 1:06:40
Number of Pages: 219

Stacey Friedman and her best friend Lydia Katz are convinced that eighth grade is going to be the best year ever. But things don't turn out that way. First Kelly, the third member of their trio, defects to the mean-girl Chicas. Then they're not invited to the best party of the year. Now they're losers?!?

It's clear there's only one thing to do--concoct a number of hare-brained schemes to get their best friend and their coolness status back. What can go wrong with that?

Why Did I Hype?: After If I Stay, I needed something light and fun. I remembered laughing out loud, a lot, when I read the first book, You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah!

Live-Up-to-the-Hype Score: 8/10

This book is like a train wreck, but not in a bad way. I knew what was going to happen, and there were parts I wanted to read with my eyes shut, but I also roared with laughter. Stacey Friedman may be an adult by Jewish standards, but she's still more than capable of making an unholy mess of her life.

While the first book managed to weave the theme of Jewish faith more closely to the narrative, this book still succeeds as a funny and familiar story about friendship, popularity, and the true meaning of both. Overall, Rosenbloom manages to balance the over-the-top situations (seriously, have you ever been to a bar mitzvah with bouncers?) with the more serious elements. No new ground is broken here, but it's a book that will seem wholly lifelike to a lot of kids.

1 comment:

MotherReader said...

Ah, that just gave me a possible next book, because I was looking for something funny and have the first book in my daughter's TBR pile. Maybe a laugh is what I need now.