Yeah, the hair and the coat? Mistake.

Hmm... doesn't this look like some other covers this year? What's up with that? The 3/4 girl body in?

Hey look, for all of you who weren't counting, it's
nine books later! For all of you not paying attention, we're going to talk about high school popularity again!

Valerie Frankel's Fringe Girl can best be described as Meg Cabot meets Andrew Clements with a dash of Cecil Castellucci thrown in for spice.

Embracing my dorky librarian habits, I tend to look at the CIP (er, copyright page) of each book I read. The complete title of this, not found anywhere else, is Fringe Girl: The Revolution Starts Now, which you may not find interesting, but I do. um... wait... what's that it says on her t-shirt? crap. nevermind.

Revolution indeed. Much like the student in Frindle, Adora takes a social studies lesson to extremes and decides to mount a mutiny of the student downtrodden and reinstate the school's social hierarchy with kinder, gentler, more democratic leaders. With a few well-strategized hits, the popular crumble and Dora suddenly rules the school. Did I mention all this was homework?

I had some hesitations prior to reading this, but I can honestly say that, one month later, there are no foul tastes left in my mouth whatsoever. That doesn't sound enthusiastic enough. hmm... This was a solidly enjoyable book that while expounding upon a popular theme, did it in a fresh way that gave me nothing to complain about. It was fun. I laughed. I cared about the characters. I may not read the sequel (Fringe Girl In Love), but was very glad that this was brought to my attention. I will have no problem giving this title to teens, and will certainly put it before that other book. ;)

Cybils Tally (which, really, is so out-of-date it's almost pointless): 27/80