Luv Ya Bunches (A Flower Power Book #1)

by Lauren Myracle

Overview

What do Katie-Rose, Yasaman, Milla, and Violet all have in common? Other than being named after flowers, practically nothing. Katie-Rose is a film director in training. Yasaman is a computer whiz. Milla is third in command of the A list. And Violet is the new girl in school. They’re fab girls, all of them, but they sure aren’t friends. And if evil queen bee Medusa— ’scuse me, Modessa—has her way, they never will be. But this is the beginning of a new school year, when anything can happen and social worlds can collide . . .

Told in Lauren Myracle’s inventive narrative style—here a fresh mix of instant messages, blog posts, screenplay, and straight narrative—Luv Ya Bunches, the first in a four-book series, is a funny, honest depiction of the shifting alliances and rivalries that shape school days, and of the lasting friendships that blossom from the skirmishes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780810942110
Publisher:	Amulet Books
Publication date:	10/01/2009
Series:	Flower Power , #1
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	7.84(w) x 5.84(h) x 1.11(d)
Lexile:	710L (what's this?)
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Lauren Myracle is the New York Times bestselling author of the Internet Girls trilogy—ttyl, ttfn, and l8r, g8r—as well as Rhymes with Witches, Bliss, and the new Flower Powerseries, among many other books for teens and young adults. She lives in Fort Collins, Colorado, with her family. Visit her online at www.laurenmyracle.com.

Editorial Reviews

Lauren Myracle, the author of the netspeak hits ttyl, ttfn, and l8r, g8r, returns with another novel cleverly concocted in Internet shorthand. Told in a hip mix of IMs, blog rants, screenplays, and straight narrative, Luv Ya Bunches zips out the story of Katie-Rose, Milla, Yasaman, and Violet, four girls with distinctly different interests. Can a new school year and an evil clique queen bee bring them together? Twitter doesn't have the answer, but this book does.

Blending instant messaging and screenplay-styled text into the narrative, Myracle (ttyl) begins a new series about the woes of being a tween, featuring four likable heroines all named after flowers. Katie Rose, Camilla (aka Milla), Yasaman and Violet come from different backgrounds and have distinct passions and insecurities (Yasaman is Muslim and an expert with computers; Milla, who has two mothers, struggles with her sense of self). But each could use a new friend as she begins fifth grade (“What Katie-Rose wants is a real friend, the kind that lasts forever”). Their shared distaste for meanness and their enthusiasm for the social networking site that Yasaman creates help draw the girls together—and their desire to get revenge against cruel queen bee Modessa, who has hurt each of them at some point, seals their camaraderie. The novel sends something of a mixed message about the acceptability of teasing as the girls’ plot their own prank in response to Modessa’s machinations. Still, readers will find the girls’ voices enticing and should be able to relate to their conflicts and inner anxieties. Ages 9–13.(Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

Gr 3–6—Love Ya Bunches doesn't offer anything new. Four fifth graders become friends while fighting off Modessa, aka Medusa, your standard mean girl. The main characters, named for flowers, represent four ethnicities, which seems like a ploy except for a few fascinating discussions of customs. Violet, an African-American who is despondent because her mother is away due to mental problems, comes off as too precocious about social cues. Ignored Yasaman, a Muslim computer genius, creates a Web site only friends share. Bouncy, bossy, half-Chinese Katie-Rose makes videos. Anxious Milla (Camilla), a blond with lesbian mothers, is in thrall to Modessa. When she loses her lucky bobble-head turtle, Violet hides it for reasons even she can't discern. She arranges for Modessa to find it, thinking she'll give it to Milla. Instead, the meanie plants it in Katie-Rose's backpack and accuses her of stealing it. The truth comes out and the four wreak revenge of a mild sort on Modessa. Using movie scripts, chat, and standard narrative no longer seems innovative but does make for a breezy book. The four friends are depicted in a manga style of art. The book is at its best when Violet lets her guard down and allows her father to comfort her. But too often it's as two-dimensional as the doll-like figures on its cover.—Tina Zubak, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, PA

School Library Journal

Katie-Rose, Yasaman, Violet and Milla each occupy a different point in the fifth-grade social pecking order: Bossy, movie-obsessed Katie-Rose is at the bottom with Yasaman, whose hijab-wearing quietude belies her sharp insight and impressive computer geekery. New girl Violet has serious cool potential but is tortured by worries over her institutionalized mother, while fundamentally nice but deeply anxious Milla can't disentangle herself from Mean Girl-in-chief Modessa (fittingly called Medusa by Katie-Rose) and her henchwoman, Quin. With the blend of IM, texting, screenplay format, blog posts and standard narrative familiar from Myracle's ttfn series, each chapter shifts perspective, letting readers see the action from each girl's point of view. The plot is thin but perfectly captures tweens' concerns about social machinations, fitting in and finding a trustworthy group of pals, existing primarily to bring together the fabulously diverse foursome as they put a fitting, funny end to Modessa's reign of terror. It's no classic, but this series launch will be embraced, read and passed from friend to friend on middle-school playgrounds everywhere. (Fiction. 9-12)

Kirkus Reviews