Baby Ariel

I am not the intended audience for this book. Even though I had no idea who this person was before I started reading and am way older than the target audience, I am going to try and give my best review. I had no idea who Baby Ariel is so I asked my Teen Advisory board members. They told me and I quote “She is one of the most important gen z influencers ever”. She got famous on musical.ly and I guess now tik tok? If you are old like me and don’t know what those things are its just short show more YouTube videos with people lip syncing. It’s the modern-day equivalent of starting a garage band with your friends, its just online for all time.
I am giving this book 2 ½ stars because it is bland. The book is edited well and broken up into sections that keep a good pace but its just bland. This is a middle-class girls diary about how she got famous on the internet. Will this book check out from your library? YES! Dan and Phil’s books were a giant success in checkouts at my library. Just realize the shelf life of this book will be short. There is nothing new or ground breaking here, it will not win awards.
The stories do no justice to paint an interesting story. The story of the time she had the flu and thought she was dying, so her mother yelled at the ER nurses, there is a story about falling off her bike, and how she hates melted cheese. This is dinner table discussion topics but enough to make a substantial book. The advice that is given is unrealistic. When a 16-year-old girl complains about not wanting to get a job as pizza hut, she gives the advice to work at the vet’s office, your favorite clothing store or the pool. There are college graduates that can’t get those jobs. There are also entire chapters entitled “ You do You”, “Haters gonna Hate”, and “Build Your Squad”.
It’s not a bad book. It’s okay. If you have YouTube obsessed teens and the budget, go ahead and buy it. Those looking for more inspirational biographies for teens check out Karen Chen’s Finding the Edge, Ibtihaj Muhammad’s Young Reader’s edition of Proud, or We Should Hang Out Sometime by Josh Sundquist. show less