Lizzie At Last
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- £8.99
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- £8.99
Publisher Description
The sequel to Losers, Inc. and You're a Brave Man, Julius Zimmerman
As seventh grade begins, Lizzie Archer knows she can't endure another year of being derided as the class nerd. Maybe she can't stop being smart -- does she want to? -- but at least she doesn't have to look so different. Out of her Emily Dickinson dresses and into Gap jeans she goes, and the effect is amazing. The girls talk to her; the boys tease her. But her braininess remains an obstacle to her popularity, and Lizzie wants so to be liked, especially by Ethan Winfield. To her teacher's amazement, Lizzie begins to make mistakes in math. Ethan is horrified -- he's her math partner -- but no one is more unhappy, or confused, than Lizzie. Will she ever find herself? Through her sparkling Lizzie Archer, Claudia Mills extends a hand to girls, gently encouraging them to be all that they can and to feel confident that like will befriend like.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This engaging sequel to Losers, Inc. and You're a Brave Man, Julius Zimmerman gives the title character of the latter novel a minor role, while placing the refreshingly candid Lizzie Archer center stage. Determined to shake off her reputation as a nerd, Lizzie puts on a new face at the start of seventh grade. She exchanges her flowing lace dresses for jeans and tank tops, feigns dumb in math in a misguided attempt to impress a boy, abandons her beloved poetry-writing and imitates the guy-pleasing giggling of a popular girl in her class. While avoiding the melodramatic, Mills credibly conveys Lizzie's inner turmoil as she struggles to be normal yet fears she will "never understand the rules of the popular girls' game." On a class trip to the rare books room of a university library, the heroine, inspired by Emily Dickinson's individuality, suddenly realizes that she can be herself without worrying about what others think and without severing the new bonds that she has made with her classmates. With her likable heroine and strong supporting cast, Mills delivers a timely message to middle graders confronted with peer pressure--and facing a case of the back-to-school jitters. Readers will likely turn the final page of this story hoping that this isn't the last they hear of Lizzie. Ages 8-12.
