We Are SO Crashing Your Bar Mitzvah!

Title: We Are SO Crashing Your Bar Mitzvah!

Author: Fiona Rosenbloom

Pages: 219

Hyperion, 2007

Genre: Realistic fiction

Recommended to: Girls, 12 & up

Rating: A-

   Stacy Adelaide Friedman thinks she's got it made: her bat mitzvah was a success, she and her best-friend-for-life Lydia Katz made up, and she's about to enter eighth grade with a cool new look that will have her chilling with the most popular girls in school, The Chicas, in no time at all. 

   However, Stacy's in for a big surprise: over the summer, while she and Lydia were at camp, their best friend Kelly got pretty, lost weight, and befriended the Chicas. Not only is she ditching Lydia and Stacy for the cool crowd in and out of school, she's invited to the bar mitzvah party of the century--even though her so-called friends weren't!

   But Stacy refuses to get dissed this quickly by the Chicas and Kelly, and concocts a master plan to crash the party and get their friend back...Will it work, or will the girls be banished to No-Friendsville before they can say "mazel tov"?

   Ah. Overall, I was really satisfied by this sequel to You Are SO Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah. Funny, light, and sincere, the story moved quickly and was simple to follow with great characters and conflicts. I really think Fiona Rosenbloom knows her audience: she's got Stacy's voice down. Teen girls will love how real and hilarious Stacy was, as I did. Her character sometimes didn't make the right choices, and at first I was sick of her immaturity, but by the end I was rooting her on, sympathizing along with her and Lydia and finding her to be a strong, well-rounded character. 

   At some times, I felt like the plotline was a bit unrealistic, like how Stacy went to such huge measures to just attend one party just to be looked upon as "cool" by others. I also found that, like in the first book, she was too involved in what other people thought of her, but was pleased how her character changed in the end.

   I loved how Ms. Rosenbloom made Kym so loatheable, and like Stacy and Lydia, I was crossing my fingers that Kelly would get a clue and get over herself.

   The dialogue was smooth, humorous at times, and overall very real, and the plot flowed so nicely that the novel made a quick, riveted-to-my-seat easy read that really only took about a day and a half to finish.

   Recommended? Heck, yes! Go read it, now! (:

Click here for a review of You Are SO Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah!