By Kristen Tracy
Delacorte Press, $15.99, 305 pages
Bessica Lefter has a plan. Going to a new school deserves creating a whole new Bessica. Of course, not everything will be new. Her old best friend Sylvie will be backing up the new Bessica; except a twist of fate puts Sylvie in one middle school and Bessica in another. That’s when things start going downhill.
The Reinvention of Bessica Lefter is told in the first person by Bessica Lefter and her clueless bumbling through middle school is hilarious. Her musings about being “shaken down” daily for pens, her fear of becoming an “alt”, lame adults and cute teenage boys will resound with tweens everywhere. The Reinvention of Bessica Lefter keeps you reading with several questions you just have to learn the answers to: will Bessica be a cheerleader, will she survive the psycho-bullies, will the friends make-up? Some of the sub-plots such as Grandma’s love life and the advice from high school acquaintances seem to slow the pace a bit but overall the book is a hit. Author Kristen Trace manages to make us laugh while still retaining the life or death attitude everything from spats with friends to haircuts to lunchtime seating seem to have when you’re eleven.
Reviewed by Jodi M. Webb
[amazon asin=0385736886&text=Buy On Amazon&template=carousel]