Elizabeth Cody Kimmel

This second Lily B. book is actually better than the first. In this book, Lily's foolishness is more believable and less horrifying than it was in "Lily B. on the Brink of Cool."
This go around, Lily is on the staff of the middle school newspaper writing an advice column, gets her first job, as an assistant to a published author, and has her first crush, when she sees The Boy at school.
The primary focus is of course on The Boy (the book title is On the Brink of Love after all) and it isn't show more too hard to see where that story line is heading pretty early on, but it's a fun trip all the same as Lily learns a few lessons about life.
And what great teachers she has in Charlotte (her aspiring Fortune 500 company CEO friend from the first book) and Bonnie, her flaky New Age friend who makes a first appearance in this book. show less

Kat just wants to be a regular junior high student but that's tricky when her mom is a medium. Things only get more out of hand when Kat turns 13 and starts seeing ghosts herself!

In the first of these two books, Kat and her entourage of family, friends, and school mates are introduced. I thought this book was interesting and compelling. The characters felt realistic and well-rounded (with the exception of Kat's mother who is a little too stereotypical new age). Kat's relationship with her show more mother was sweet and positive. The ghost story was well done, being nicely wrapped up and not too scary. There is a little bit of open-endness to the conclusion, leaving the door open for more titles in the series, but on the whole it feels complete.

The second book, however, was not quite as good. While the other title was supernatural without being over the top, this one got too bogged down in spirit orbs, blocked chakras, and negative energy. It was a little much for me. The main story with Tank was fine, but there was a lot of extraneous stuff going on, some of which was not resolved.

Some of the references were a little dated (e.g., Punked) but on the whole this book holds up pretty well. There is a lack of diversity, which isn't great, but it's better than harmful representations. show less

This book is such a delightful read! In my opinion, the highlight of the book was the combination of the illustrations and child-like thought process present in the text. For instance, one page of the book portrays a letter that the main character wrote to Santa. Part of it states, “I feel like maybe I should have asked for a different present, and you want to swap, that would be OK.” Instead of simply telling Santa what he wants, the kind hearted and innocent main character adorably show more fails at hiding his true intentions. The text is heart-warming, but so are the illustrations, especially on the page where the main character is depicted with his messy morning hair, pajamas, and tongue sticking out in reaction to the gross pile of fish that Osbert, his pet penguin, enjoys eating. Overall, I enjoyed reading about a child who got what he asked for, learned that his wish was poorly planned, and learned to relinquish his treasured friend for the friend’s sake. Everything about this book was charming and heart filling; I would definitely include it in my future collection of show less

Typical middle school story: It's Phoebe's first year in middle school and she's looking to fit in but her attempts to befriend the cool drama girls alienates her best friend Harper. It seems awfully convenient that Phoebe's mother is a shrink and Harper is intellectually gifted; they serve to provide the "just be yourself" platitudes and help Phoebe get her head straight about living on the Entirely New Planet that is middle school.