I'm With the Band

September 28, 2015
Calonita (Flunked) targets Directioners and other boy band devotees with this effervescent first book in the V.I.P. series. Twelve-year-old Mackenzie Lowell and her two best friends live for the band Perfect Storm and are dying to see them in concert. Mac also loves drawing comics about her alter ego Mac Attack, who is part of a crime-fighting girl band (Gudsnuk, creator of the Henchgirl
webcomic, provides exuberant comics sequences and spot illustrations throughout). Mac’s dreams of someday marrying her Perfect Storm crush, Zander, become just slightly more plausible after Mac’s mother announces that she has been asked to manage Perfect Storm on tour, and Mac will be coming along. While Mac’s embarrassment over a poster and poem she created for the band and a conflict within Perfect Storm provide tension, the real meat of this diary-style story lies in the behind-the-scenes details of life on tour, as well as Mac’s relationships with the band members as she gets to know them as real people. Ages 8–12. Author’s agent: Dan Mandel, Sanford J. Greenburger Associates.

September 1, 2015

Gr 4-6-For tween patrons who idolize boy bands and are looking for some G-rated romance, this fun confection narrated by 12-year-old Mackenzie Lowell is just the ticket. Mac, an artist and budding graphic novelist spends much of her free time with her BFFs, drooling over the newest up-and-coming boy band Perfect Storm. The girls are bummed after spending the afternoon trying to score tickets to Perfect Storm's concert by calling in to a radio station. Mac's publicist mom saves the day by scoring VIP tickets. Mom's coolness factor skyrockets when she's hired to be the band's publicist, requiring her to travel with the band for a month-and Mac's going with her! This is Mac's chance to catch the eye of lead singer Zander, her crush. Perhaps he'll take her to the spring dance? But there are ups and downs on the tour including an accident involving Green Dragon soda, pranks, a rich mean girl, Zander's fickleness, and Mac's blossoming friendship with Kyle. There's a lot to like in this series starter: Mac's voice, snippets of her graphic novel, the authenticity, the humor, and the pacing. VERDICT The diary format and many illustrations will entice fans of Rachel Renee Russell's "Dork Diaries" (S. & S.) but should be appealing to a wide audience and will have tween readers eager for the next installment.-Brenda Kahn, Tenakill Middle School, Closter, NJ

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2015
Grades 3-6 Twelve-year-old Mac can't imagine anything more amazing than seeing her all-time favorite band, Perfect Storm, in concert. But then her mom announces that she has gotten a job as Perfect Storm's tour manager, and the two of them will be joining the boys on the road for a couple of months. Let the manic texting and hyperventilating begin! Despite starting off the tour on the wrong foot, hanging out with the band is a dream come true, and as Mac gets to know the boys, her longtime crush on Zander starts shifting in another direction. Calonita captures squealing tween-girl excitement perfectly in this diary-style novel, but she makes sure being a fangirl isn't Mac's only M.O. Her ambitions to be an artist not only feature in the plot but also in its illustrations, as spreads from her comic book Mac Attack (home to her cool, confident alter ego) join the book's spot illustrations. Middle-schoolers won't likely identify with being on tour, but Mac's crushes and obsessions will strike a familiar chord.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)