President of the Whole Sixth Grade

September 1, 2015
Class president Brianna Justice learns that in middle school, even the best-laid plans can go awry. Brianna hits the ground running in middle school, tasked with leading her class in raising money for the annual sixth-grade trip to Washington, D.C. But fundraising efforts get off to a rocky start, and Brianna finds it hard to relate to her suddenly body-conscious, boy-crazy best friends, Sara and Becks. Her friends have changed, and it seems like everyone in sixth grade is pretending to be something they aren't. And Brianna fears she might be "the biggest fake of all" in her efforts to keep it all together and not freak out about raising enough money in time for the class trip. To make matters worse, a seventh-grade nemesis is determined to sabotage her fundraising efforts. Undaunted, Brianna discovers that in middle school, life doesn't always go as planned, everything can change in an instant-including best friends-and that change can be a good thing. In this sequel to President of the Whole Fifth Grade (2010), Winston's humorous prose captures the spirited preteen voice of an honors student with sass, quick wit, and great ideas. Readers will enjoy journal entries, text messages, and notes from Brianna's trusty clipboard, which are interspersed throughout the narrative. A whip-smart, funny, and fast-paced outing equally suited to returning fans and readers who are just meeting Brianna for the first time. (Fiction. 8-12)

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July 1, 2015

Gr 4-6-In fifth grade, Brianna Justice's most difficult tasks were running for class president and staying true to herself and her friends. Sixth grade ups the ante. Brianna is handed the sixth grade presidency along with a financial deficit that could keep her class from their trip to Washington DC. Her civics teacher gives the kids an assignment to compare life in middle school to life in ancient times. As Brianna struggles with fundraising failures, self-doubt, posturing classmates, and friends drifting off to new cliques, she begins to have a whole new understanding of ancient Rome. In the beginning, Brianna is a rather unsympathetic character. She has the self-absorbed, narrow focus of, well, a stereotypical middle school student. As she gets more involved in her community and lets herself open up to the possibility that change can be good, Brianna becomes much more likable. She has passion and heart and her good intentions show through, even when she is making bad decisions. The story accurately captures the ups and downs of changing friendships in middle school and features an intelligent, talented, African American protagonist. Brianna's actions match her age, but her introspective thoughts and civics journal entries maker her seem slightly older. VERDICT Give this to fans of fast-paced, contemporary fiction. It's a sequel, but can stand alone.-Kelly Roth, Bartow County Public Library, Cartersville, GA

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2015
Grades 4-7 When we last saw Brianna Justice she was on top of the world, fresh off the victory of being elected president of her fifth-grade class. But nothing bursts her bubble faster than starting middle school, where no one really cares about things anymore and everyone is trying to be someone else. Worse, two of her longtime BFFs have started blowing her off to hang out with a pair of nasty popular girls (the Peas). To top things off, Brianna has to contend with a rival who is determined to see her middle-school political career fail, and she only has a limited amount of time to raise money for the class trip to D.C. But Brianna has never been scared of a challenge, so she gathers up other allies and her trusty clipboard and gets to work. Brianna's determination and follow-through make her a great role model, but the true value here is the very real depiction of the ebb and flow of middle-school friendships and the difficulties that come with growing up. An important resource for anyone who's ever been in Brianna's shoes.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)