Kid Konnection: Gossip From the Girls' Room & Guest Post

Every Saturday, I host a feature called Kid Konnection -- a regular weekend feature about anything related to children's books. This week I'm going to share with you a fun book geared towards middle grade girls as well as a guest post from the author!

Summary: Gossip from the Girls’ Room fills readers in on all there is to learn about middle school life at Middlebrooke, where Sofia has her very own blog and discusses all the juicy gossip that comes out of the Girls’ room; read along to find out just what happens when class is not in session.

In Sofia's words . . .

Mia St. Claire is only the most popular girl in all of Middlebrooke Middle School. For three very obvious reasons:
1. She's very rich.
2. She has tons of money.
3. She can buy anything and everything she wants. And she does.
I'm sure people like her for other reasons too, but none of those reasons are obvious enough for me to really know. Or care about, for that matter. -- Delacorte Press

When I first saw the cover of GOSSIP FROM THE GIRLS' ROOM: A BLOGTASTIC! NOVEL by Rose Cooper, I just knew Booking Daughter was going to grab it! First of all it's pink and black (two of her favorite colors especially when together) and then it had plaid, hearts, and the face of a cute girl. Could this book look more perfect for tween girls? Personally, I was attracted to it for some of the same reasons, but I liked that it was subtitled "a Blogtastic! Novel." For some reason, I'm just drawn to all-things blog-related!

I thought GOSSIP FROM THE GIRLS' ROOM was a very fun book and one that tweens are going to enjoy. I don't know that I'd go so far as to say that I loved it, but I did find it entertaining and good for a few laughs. However, Booking Daughter really liked it and thought it was hilarious. Even though I had just finished reading it (literally minutes before), she kept stopping to read cute snippets aloud -- and then she'd laugh like a nut! What I quickly realized is that GOSSIP FROM THE GIRLS' ROOM is definitely geared towards late elementary and middle grade girls, and I am pretty sure that young girls are going to appreciate it.

And I'm not so far away from my tween years to understand why this book is so appealing. I admit that I am a sucker for books that are written in the form of a notebook. I love the lined pages with the faux handwriting, and if there are cute little drawings (like there are in GOSSIP FROM THE GIRL'S ROOM) all the better! The book is a very quick read because of the format, and I think even reluctant readers are going to want to read this novel.

As a mom, I liked some of the messages in the story. Despite not being too sure about Sofia's behavior in the beginning of the book, I had a feeling that she'd eventually come around. Sofia was so desperate to be popular and part of the in-crowd that she created a gossip blog. Rather than try to make friends with nice kids -- in the traditional way, she decided that her road to popularity would be paved with vicious rumors. She wasn't concerned with what she said or whom she'd hurt -- even if it included her friends. Fortunately, Sophia was a good kid at heart and realized how destructive her behavior was. I appreciated that there were some valuable lessons in this novel about friendship, gossip, loyalty, jealousy, and bullying.

Overall, I thought GOSSIP FROM THE GIRLS' ROOM was a cute book and I do recommend it to tween girls!

Thanks to the publisher for sending an ARC of this book.

I am also very excited that the author of GOSSIP FROM THE GIRLS' ROOM, Rose Cooper, took time from her busy schedule to write this very interesting guest post about bullying. I admire Ms. Cooper for bringing this important topic to the forefront with this essay and her books!

In my debut book, GOSSIP FROM THE GIRLS’ ROOM, my main character, 6th grader Sofia, is so desperate to become popular, she resorts to blogging and even embellishing much of what she overhears from other students. Even if it means hurting her friends. She learns a valuable lesson though when she finds herself on the receiving end of the gossip as well.

As a kid, I was bullied for ridiculous things, and teased about things I had no control over. My mom worked at my school-strike one. My dad was a mortician-strike two. I lived on cemetery grounds.-strike three. We won’t even talk about the time I was picked up from school in a hearse. And, much like my character, students embellished the facts because it made it more interesting. No, I never slept in a coffin and my parents weren’t vampires.

But I remember how it felt to be picked on. And now having three kids of my own, I can’t help but feel over protective. Besides bullying of the verbal and physical kind, kids now have the ammunition of the internet. What some kids don’t realize or just fail to even think about is once you put something out there on the internet, you cannot take it back. And anyone has access to it.

The second book in the series, RUMORS FROM THE BOYS’ ROOM (out 10-11-11), deals with Sofia learning from past mistakes and dealing with the temptations (and ridicule) that most kids face at one point or another. I‘m not expecting my books to change anyone, but it would be fantastic if it could help even one kid overcome their feelings of insecurity, even for a moment, or add some laughter to their day.

*****
Follow Rose Cooper on her blog tour to promote GOSSIP FROM THE GIRLS’ ROOM:

Monday, April 18th - The Misadventures of Candyland
Tuesday, April 19th - The Quintessentially Questionable Query Experiment
Wednesday, April 20th - Rambles & Randomness
Thursday, April 21st - Unedited
Friday, April 22nd - Talli Roland
Monday, April 25th - Random Acts of Reading
Tuesday, April 26th - Amie Borst

If you'd like to participate in Kid Konnection and share a post about anything related to children's books (picture, middle grade, or young adult) from the past week, please leave a comment as well as a link below with your name/blog name and the title of the book! Feel free to grab the little button too!