Middle School Is Worse Than Meatloaf

Middle School Is Worse Than Meatloaf: A Year Told Through Stuff
by Jennifer Holm (author) and Elicia Castaldi (illustrator)

I saw this one come across the circ desk, and I have to admit, I just loved the title (for the record, I love meatloaf). I started paging through it, and had read half of it before I even realized it. Ginny Davis is a seventh grade student, and this is the story of her year told entirely through scrapbook-style collages of "stuff". Poems and essays from English class, her evolving to-do list, report cards, IM screenshots, postcards, even receipts for such things as her salon treatment to correct a disastrous home hairdye experiment. Ginny deals with an older brother who goes from "neighborhood prankster" to "juvenile delinquent", a widowed mother who remarries, and all of the trials and tribulations of everyday life in middle school.

Ginny's personality comes through remarkably well, considering the presentation style of the book. She's funny, troubled, resilient, and very easy to relate to. Since everything is presented graphically rather than in traditional "chapter book" style, this book would probably appeal to our younger teens who enjoy comics or manga.