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PUBLISHERS WEEKLY APR 4, 2005

Like The Secret Blog of Raisin Rodriguez (reviewed below), Vega's first novel centers on a middle-school narrator whose secret blog is made public. But this is not the first thing that happens to Erin Swift: First, she gets put on a different track at school from her pretty, popular best friend, Jilly, and on the first day, Erin punches a mean girl who says, "Jillian is Gepetto, the master puppeteer, and you're Pinocchio" (which leads to more Pinocchio taunting from her classmates). Erin, who dreams of becoming a webmaster, chronicles her humiliations, and her increasing autonomy in her "personal, private, no one-will-see-but-me web page"(her blog entries run between chapters). Erin's narration is less silly than Raisin's (in Secret Blog), which makes her problems more painful to read, from watching her crush kiss Jilly for at least "four Mississippi" on the school bus, to her frustration at Jilly's narcissism. And while readers may find some of the dialogue scripted, and wonder what Erin saw in Jilly to begin with, they will certainly sympathize with the heroine when her most private moments (she practices kissing her pillow and says she hates her best friend) accidentally surface on the school Intranet. Overall, this is a heartfelt book about a girl becoming her own person. Ages 8-12.