by Lauren Myracle
ages: 10+
First sentence: “You’re invited to a Super Fabulous Flower Power Powwow!”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy sent by the publisher

I turned around and read this one as soon as I finished Luv Ya Bunches; I really did want to see what Katie-Rose, Yasaman, Camilla and Violet were up to next. It’s the second week of school, and even though they’ve all declared themselves FFFs (flower friends forever), there’s still a few bumps that they need to iron out.

Katie-Rose is having problems because another girl, Natalia, is making the moves on Yasaman. Part of it is because of Yasaman’s idea to get rid of the Cheezy D’Lites as a snack food. Natalia wants to be a part of it, and Katie-Rose is having sharing and space issues. It’s not pretty, to say the least.

Milla like-likes Max, and is tentatively reaching out to a friendship/whatever fifth graders do with him. Until there is a Tragic Incident which threatens to derail everything. And even though the book suggests it’s about Violet, she really only plays a marginal role: she stands up for the slightly odd Cyril when he’s being picked on by the evil Modessa (of whom there is an interesting insight near the end of the book), and she faces seeing her mom in the mental hospital. I was expecting more from Violet, but it really seemed to be Katie-Rose’s book.

That said, it was still fluffy fifth-grade fun. Myracle has the age group, especially girls, down-pat, which made the characters (this is me as a mom speaking) quite delightful. And, again, she puts enough in the books to make them more timeless and less pop-culture, while maintaining the pop-culture appeal for the kids. It’s a good series.