Amy, age 12, is particularly shy around Tony, a new student who wants to impress "the cool clique." When her activist friend Lindsay is falsely accused of defacing school property, she suspects that a vindictive someone from the popular crowd could be responsible. She asks Amy to infiltrate the group via Tony, who has shown interest in her. Amy's loyalty is ultimately challenged, however, and her friendship with Lindsay nearly destroyed. Asch's didacticism on social and environmental issues often reaches strident proportions, and what seems a wistful nostalgia for the 1960s becomes a bit much; Lindsay, for example, flashes the peace sign, and sidekicks spout variations of "groovy." Insights can be as shallow as "But as a member of the cool clique, anything Mark did was automatically cool," while Amy's "Drugs are what killed the hippie movement" seems unlikely from a modern-day sixth grader. Amy's fine sense of humor is apparent, though, and her frank narration helps salvage this wordy novel. Ages 8-12.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Grade 4-6-Amy, a shy sixth grader, is frequently caught up in the escapades of her mercurial best friend, so when Lindsay decides to form a Save the Earth Club at school, Amy goes along with the plan. They enlist the participation of the '60s-obsessed twins, Ruth and Heather, and find a teacher to be their advisor. They meet moderate success with a project to hold classroom discussions on Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, and ultimately triumph when their skit, a mock TV-talk show demonstrating the negative effects of war toys and violent video games, wins the school talent contest. Things begin to unravel when Lindsay is suspended for supposedly spray painting the school's front door; she quits the club and disappears. All is resolved as the students join hands around the school to celebrate Earth Day. While there is a lot happening here to both interest and involve readers, some of the situations and dialogue do not ring true. Ms. Peterson's insistence that the club limit its membership to the four girls, and TV coverage of the school's Earth Day event when a student has ostensibly disappeared the previous day are hard to believe. Amy's brother, who calls himself The Avenger, is truly a mean-spirited child, and Lindsay's serious emotional problems are glossed over. Readers will, however, recognize the power of peer pressure, the need to belong, the beginnings of romance, and the importance of Amy's ability to overcome her shyness and defend her rights.
Marie Orlando, Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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