The Prank List

June 1, 2014
Almost-a-ninth-grader Rachel sees herself as a future pastry chef, but when she takes a baking class, she just can't get it right.Even worse, Rachel's mom has a new house-cleaning business that isn't going well since Rachel was falsely accused of stealing, and now they've got competition. If their business does not succeed, Rachel and her mom may have to sell their home and move away from Rachel's friends. Romance also hovers on the edge for Rachel. She isn't sure if she's Evan's official girlfriend or not, as he's never asked her. However, Evan does appear to be jealous of Whit, a boy in Rachel's cooking class, although Rachel keeps telling Evan that she doesn't like Whit. Even with all those problems, Rachel determines to fight back against the rival Ladybug Cleaners, concocting pranks to drive them away, but everything she does seems to backfire. Staniszewski keeps the focus on comedy with the cooking-class scenes (Rachel is an overconfident baker), but she lets her story become a bit more serious with the pranks Rachel plays. Clearly, Rachel will learn a few life lessons as she stumbles through her summer, but they go down easy in this narrative peppered with such amusing catchphrases as "Oh my goldfish" and "What the Shrek?"Gentle fun laced with equally gentle wisdom. (Fiction. 10-14)

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June 1, 2014

Gr 7 Up-Fourteen-year-old Rachel Lee is happy that eighth grade is over and things seem to be going well with her maybe boyfriend. She would be happier if Chef Ryan, her pastry class instructor, didn't hate her. She's also worried about causing her mom to lose clients. It seems there's a rumor going around that Rachel is a thief, and a new cleaning business seems to be taking advantage of it to build their business. If her mom can't make ends meet, then a move to Connecticut may be in the future. Rachel needs to do something to help. Unfortunately, her solution, a series of "pranks" really amount to libel and malicious mischief and feel utterly contrived. Rachel seems overly naive and apparently learned nothing from her earlier experience spreading rumors. She's also prone to odd alliteration, "paranoid panther," and cloying faux-swearing, such as "What the Shrek?" or "Oh my goldfish! Tween readers who find Rachel endearing will find a fast-paced comedy of errors. More sophisticated readers might become impatient with the cardboard secondary characters and Rachel's infuriating gaps in logic. Purchase where The Dirt Diaries (Sourcebooks, 2014), Rachel's first adventure, is popular, and hope for a bit more growth for Rachel if she returns for a third installment.-Brenda Kahn, Tenakill Middle School, Closter, NJ

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