Books by
Meg Cabot

ALLIE FINKLE'S
RULES FOR GIRLS:
Book One - Moving Day

ALLIE FINKLE'S
RULES FOR GIRLS:
Book Two - The New Girl

ALLIE FINKLE'S RULES FOR GIRLS: Book Two - The New Girl
by Meg Cabot
Scholastic Press
ISBN: 9780545040495
Ages 8-12
240 pages

• Read an Excerpt

Allie Finkle's life is rough. She has moved to a new neighborhood, and has been forced to make new friends and start the academic year at a brand-new school. With a brother for whom pirate wear is his school uniform, Allie fears she won't fit in. However, with the help of her new friend from next door and some other nice girls, she finds a comfortable place on her first day.

But as soon as things get cooking in the classroom, a bully begins picking on her. With little provocation, Rosemary, a big nasty girl, has decided that Allie is her next victim. And so begins THE NEW GIRL, the second Allie Finkle adventure by Meg Cabot. When Rosemary tells Allie that she plans to beat her up, Allie starts creating new rules to help herself figure out what she needs to do.

Meg Cabot is a funny writer; her humor is warm and sitcom-pitch perfect. Since these are books for tweens, starring a tween protagonist, it walks a nice line between kiddie lit and a general sophistication, a knowing sense of what makes children of this era tick. Allie is a delightful creation --- with all the usual neuroses and a touch of stand-out definition in her wacky family --- and her foibles and tribulations feel very, very real but new at the same time.

Sometimes, Cabot has a tendency to make things cutesy, particularly where Allie's little brother Kevin is concerned. This is Judy Blume-lite, a volume that would be at home next to the Fudge series of books: kids with issues, solving their problems and learning something in the process. THE NEW GIRL is cute, funny and occasionally original --- exactly the perfect book for reading for fun.

Allie Finkle is a poster child for "nice" girls everywhere --- she makes fashion misstatements, gets in trouble at school for talking to her friends in class, is scared of the freakishly strong and troublesome Rosemary, and gets teary-eyed when she sees her new friends coming to her aid during her time of need. There is something downright comforting about the fact that this young heroine is "nice" --- she doesn't talk about bling or wanting to be a rock star. She's trying to figure out that slippery slope between little kid and teenager with her own particular brand of angst and bravado.

THE NEW GIRL continues Allie's reign as the new queen of tweendom. I am sure there are legions of readers out there who will be clamoring for more very, very soon.

    --- Reviewed by Jana Siciliano

Click here now to buy this book from Amazon.com.

Back to top.