Award-winning author Beth Vrabel writes with humor and empathy about a girl who wants to shed her embarrassing moments before she leaves middle school behind her. The first eight years of Penelope McGee’s education have been a curriculum in humiliation. Now she is on a quest for redemption, and a little bit of revenge. From her kindergarten self-portrait as a bacon with boobs, to fourth grade … with boobs, to fourth grade when she peed her pants in the library thanks to a stuck zipper to seventh grade where…well, she doesn’t talk about seventh grade. Ever.
After hearing the guidance counselor lecturing them on how high school will be a clean slate for everyone, Pipi–fearing that her eight humiliations will follow her into the halls of Northbrook High School–decides to use her last year in middle school to right the wrongs of her early education and save other innocents from the same picked-on, laughed-at fate. Pipi McGee is seeking redemption, but she’ll take revenge, too.
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An amazing story and really well written. I enjoyed the fun-loving characters and the things they got up to. HIghly recommended.
A perfect read for middle schoolers or about to be middle schoolers.
I hated middle school. I felt awkward with who I was and who I wanted to be. Luckily though I did not have the experiences Pipi did kindergarten through 7th grade. I felt embarrassed for her as I was reading.
Lesson one learned: Revenge is never as satisfying as you think it will be. If only adults would learn this as well. Kids need to learn this lesson early on and a lot of unnecessary heartache and drama would be avoided. The author handles this so perfectly with Pipi and Vile Kate.
Lesson two learned: Everyone is fighting something inside themselves you don’t know about. Being kind to even the nastiest person will make you feel better in the long run. My favorite line in the entire book: “hurt people hurt people.” Oh, how true is this statement. Once we understand that it is much easier to overlook the nasty in others.
Parents, aunts, grandmothers buy this book for the tween in your life. Read together and let it open up a world of discussions between you. I think you’ll be happy you did.
I received a complimentary copy from the publisher, Perseus Books, Running Press, through NetGalley. Any and all opinions expressed in the above review are entirely my own.
Poor Penelope!! Every year something happens to this poor eighth-grader that makes her the laughingstock of her class. From wanting to be a bacon with boobs when she grows up, to an incident with a stuck zipper which resulted in the unfortunate nickname Pipi, she’s experienced it all. But she vows that eighth grade will be different. And the first day of school, she’s humiliated once again. When that picture she drew as a Kindergartener of a bacon with boobs gets put up on the screen, she’s immediately the laughingstock of her class.
She’s had enough and puts a plan into action that will help her to stop being the unfortunate Pipi McGee and blossom into Penelope McGee, the girl she’s always wanted to be. The only problem is, she might lose friendships she’s had for years to make herself into someone she might not be meant to be.
I absolutely loved this story. Most of us have been there, something happened in school and we ended up being laughed at by others. It’s a normal part of life, something we’ve rolled with. But, not many have had the problems that Pipi had, or had as many incidents.
I cringed, I laughed, I giggled, I enjoyed. I’m purchasing a copy so that my 6th grade daughter can read it. I know she’s going to enjoy it just as much as I have. This was my first book by Ms. Vrabel, and I can’t wait to dig into more.
*I received a copy from Netgalley and this is my honest and voluntary review.