May 30, 2016
Believably exploring body issues, crushes, popularity, and friendship, Young (Doodlebug) captures the confused and charming voice of a 12-year-old girl who isn’t sure about much, including what she wants to be called. Sixth-grader Christine “Tink” Gouda’s school year is not going well. She feels too tall, too physically mature, and just too different from the cute, petite girls and crush-worthy boys who make up what Tink refers to as “the circle.” Tink’s best friend Jackie has decided that this year, Tink will be known as “Chris” because it sounds more grown up, but Tink isn’t sure that this new name fits her any better than her old one. Uncertainty fills each page as Tink begins a budding friendship with class clown Matthew “Bushwhack” Alva and watches Jackie try on different personas to fit in. Clever banter and some made-up words, including the “almost rude” “bushwah,” help Young’s characters jump off the page in a thoughtful and realistic look at what it means to be on the precipice of adolescence. Ages 8–12. Agent: Faye Bender, the Book Group.

Starred review from June 15, 2016
Two white, female best friends enter sixth grade, and their friendship becomes complicated. Tink, 11 going on 12, decides to change her childhood nickname to something more grown-up, and Jackie, her best friend since kindergarten, suggests "Chris"--the abbreviated version of Tink's given name, Christine. It is Tink's wrestling with what it means to be the more adult "Chris" that forms the basis of this extraordinarily perceptive story. Jackie and Tink come from different backgrounds: Jackie is the only child of Bess, a single parent who is currently dating a twice-divorced man with two children, while Tink lives with her parents and three siblings in a middle-class home. Jackie, unsurprisingly, has matured emotionally faster than Tink and is now preoccupied with being part of the in "circle" of the sixth grade, to Tink's confusion and dismay. Young's deliciously fresh, perspicacious narrative is told in third-person from Tink's point of view, punctuated with wry telephone conversations between the girls relayed in scriptlike format. She maintains a spot-on, getting-ready-to-leave-behind-childhood-but-not-yet-adult narrative tone as she relays the complex world of sixth grade--a world of cliques and betrayal and, in Tink's case, the courage to try to sort it all out. Patronization and pandering are completely absent in this original treatment of the theme of belonging. A lovely, lovely tale full of warmth, humor, and intelligence that validates its readership. (Fiction. 10-12)

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Starred review from August 1, 2016

Gr 5-7-Sixth grader Christine Gouda's last year of elementary school is full of transitions as she begins the early stages of puberty and her friendship with her best friend, Jackie, changes. Christine's mother has often called her Tink (short for Tinker Bell), and her classmates call her Hundred Percent, but Jackie suggests that she adopt a more grown-up nickname, Chris. As her school year begins, Tink contends with having protective parents and three younger siblings, skirting the edges of the popular crowd, and being friends with the weird kids. She finds herself having awkward experiences on Halloween, when she isn't invited to parties, and later in the year receives attention that is more sexual in nature than she wants. Meanwhile, Tink's parents judge Jackie's single but dating mother, and Jackie chooses to befriend the popular crowd because she thinks it will make school easier, not because she likes them. The novel ends with Tink feeling like 100 percent herself as she successfully directs a group lip-syncing performance, pursues the boy she likes, and decides that she wants to be called Christine. Written in third person and filled with the eccentric antics of sixth graders and astute observations about maturity and remaining true to oneself, this title is full of expertly developed characters and a plot that will have readers laughing on one page and empathizing with Tink on the next. Young perfectly captures the emotions of middle schoolers and their evolving friendships and familial relationships. VERDICT A humorous, heartfelt portrayal of a sixth grader learning to stay true to herself; a first purchase for all collections serving tweens.-Liz Anderson, DC Public Library

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2016
Grades 4-7 Sixth grade seems like the perfect place for reinventionor self-discoveryfor Chris and her BFF Jackie. But their friendship strains as the girls develop at different rates and Jackie is invited into the cool kids' group. Chris tags along but isn't sure that's where she belongs, especially when her crush woofs at her, and her nerdy friend Matthew (aka Bushwhack) is considered a social pariah to be left behind. As in Stuck in the Middle (of Middle School) (2013), Young demonstrates her apt understanding of preteens, incorporating pertinent themes, such as the search for self-identity, the struggle to accept one's changing body, first crushes, the betrayal of friends, and the search for new ones. Luminous, witty writing and satirical banter between Chris and Bushwhack move the tale through the school year and offer hope that everyone can survive sixth grade. While not all of the plot is plausible, tweens will connect with Chris' struggle to find out who she is (and who she wants to be), and they'll rejoice as she emerges from her cocoon.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2017
Sixth grader Christine (-Tink,- short for Tinker Bell) is physically maturing faster than best friend Jackie, but Jackie feels much readier to be a teenager; that tension is evident in their frequent phone conversations, presented in script format. In an often funny, mostly episodic novel about one grade and particularly one friendship, Young is honest about the ins and outs of sixth-grade dynamics.

(Copyright 2017 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

November 1, 2016
Christine Bernadette Gouda spends sixth grade shifting from one identity to another. Sometimes she's Tink (short for Tinker Bell), a nickname her mother gave her; sometimes she's Chris, a name chosen by her best friend Jackie; and sometimes she's Hundred Percent, a cheese-related nickname from oddball classmate Bushwhack (about which she believes she has to be a good sport). Physically, Tink is maturing faster than Jackie, and feels gawky; but Jackie feels much readier to be a teenager, and that tension is evident in their frequent phone conversations, presented in a script format that allows readers to focus on the words as intently as the characters do. In an often funny, mostly episodic novel about one grade and particularly one friendship, Young is honest about the timeless ins and outs (and in-jokes) of sixth-grade dynamics, from boys to bazoomas, though she lets readers fill in some details for themselves. As Tink figures out where she fits in, she might just encourage other preteens, even awkward ones, to do the same. shoshana flax

(Copyright 2016 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)