Unschooled

July 1, 2017

Gr 3-5-It's Spirit Week at Liberty Falls Elementary, and the fifth grade class has been divided into two teams-Blue and Red. Best friends George and Lilly have been looking forward to this event all year. Together they can conquer any challenge. To make the contest even more enticing, Principal Klein announces a secret prize for the winning team. Disaster strikes as George and Lilly realize that they are not only on different teams but are also rival captains. No one is playing fair, and Principal Klein threatens to cancel Spirit Week as team members are slimed, costumes sabotaged, and class pets held for ransom. George and Lilly struggle to salvage their friendship and save Spirit Week. Told in the alternating voices of the two protagonists, this work provides good fodder for discussion on right vs. wrong, pride, achievement, responsibility, and self-esteem. VERDICT This well-written, engaging story will be popular with middle graders. A good selection for most shelves.-Paula Huddy, The Blake School-Highcroft Campus, Wayzata, MN

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2017
BFFs George Martinez and Lilly Bloch get themselves into a difficult position when they become the captains for opposing fifth-grade teams during their school's spirit week.Lilly is way too competitive, whereas George has always preferred the path of least resistance. Lilly's spirit seems to fuel in her teammates the fire to win, no matter how. Meanwhile, George is too passive to rein in his fervent classmates, who are equally willing to do whatever it takes to get the prize. Speculation on the mystery prize at stake gets wilder and more improbable as the week passes. Both teams cheat, engaging in a series of dirty tricks that drive a wedge between George and Lilly but that neither does much to control. It's only after a series of funny, messy disasters that the pair finally realizes that standing by and letting their teammates cheat without intervening makes them guilty too. For the last day's event, a field day, Lilly and George work together, trying to derail any planned misbehavior--of which there is plenty--each eventually confronting the worst of the bad kids and their own demons as well. Related in distinctive alternating voices, the tale features ample over-the-top situations with character development taking second place to high jinks. George has light brown skin, like his evidently Latino dad, and Lilly is white. An amusing road map to bad behavior but also a fairly subtle reminder of the culpability of mere bystanders to nastiness. (Fiction. 9-12)

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January 1, 2018
Events spiral out of control when two fifth-grade friends find themselves captains of opposing teams at Liberty Falls Elementary School's Spirit Week competition. There's rampant competitiveness and unabashed cheating; will Lilly and George's relationship survive? Despite an improbably oblivious school administration, things settle down to a predictable conclusion. Characterization is thin, but middle graders will be entertained by the spirited shenanigans.

(Copyright 2018 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)