Publisher's Weekly Review

Krulik (the Katie Kazoo Switcheroo series) treads on tried-and-true turf in the first installment of the How I Survived Middle School series, but does so credibly and affectingly. Having read the middle school handbook cover-to-cover, likable narrator Jenny arrives on the first day of sixth grade confident that she knows the ropes. And she's wearing a t-shirt from the sleepaway camp she attended over the summer-how cool is that? Not in the slightest, she realizes, as she spies her best friend Addie sporting a stylish, sophisticated outfit ("Middle School Rule #1: A big green t-shirt with a lizard on the front is not mature"). Things go downhill from there: searching for the cafeteria, she gets "punked" by eighth-graders who give her directions to a nonexistent elevator, and she eats the lunch she's brought from home (another faux pas) in a phone booth while pretending to chat on the phone after Addie abandons her for the popular crowd. Readers will cringe at-and sympathize with-Jenny as her earnest attempts to fit in with Addie's new gang fail miserably. But a group of warm, independent-minded kids befriend her, raising her spirits and self-esteem and helping her gain perspective on Addie's snobby, superficial clique. Also guiding Jenny through the middle school quagmire is a Web site she discovers, www.middleschoolsurvival.com, which contains school- and friend-related quizzes (Scholastic will supply an actual Web site at this address). Jenny and Addie vie for the class presidency in Madame President, due out this month as well. Ages 9-12. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved