Mary Quattlebaum (Children's Literature)
Seventh grade brings Ginny Davis not life’s metaphorical goodies but its mystery meat. Middle School is Worse than Meatloaf chronicles Ginny’s year through post-it notes, doodles, homework assignments, detention notices, lists and other written detritus. The form is brilliant and the voice fresh and funny. Middle-school readers will be drawn immediately into Ginny’s world, which consists of her mother’s wedding, a brain-related science fair project, a friendship gone bad, a first dance date, a shrunken favorite sweater and two troublesome brothers. Kudos to Maryland author Jennifer Holm for such an original and touching book and to illustrator Elicia Castaldi for the pictures so revealing of Ginny’s personality. 2007, Atheneum/Simon and Schuster, $12.99. Ages 9 to 13.

Suzanna E. Henshon, Ph.D. (Children's Literature)
What is it really like to be a teenager? From September to June, readers explore twelve-year-old Ginny’s last year of middle school through party invitations, several report cards, science notes, poetry assignments, Instant Message conversations, graded papers, and in-class notes passed to friends. This book presents the angst and humor of seventh grade with authenticity and delight, falling gently into the stream of classic teenage voices. The accompanying artifacts of Ginny’s school experience are a wonderful collage that will be familiar to any seventh grade girl. Jennifer Holm, winner of the Newbery Honor award for Our Only May Amelia and Penny from Heaven, has once again created a story permeated with creativity. The gentle story is beautifully complemented by Elicia Castaldi’s illustrations. Young readers will enjoy following the adventures of Ginny from her to-do list to her school-themed poems to her slumber party guest list. Jennifer Holm has once again touched magic. 2007, Ginny Seo Books/Atheneum Books for Young Readers, $12.99. Ages 10 to adult.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, July 1, 2007 (Vol. 75, No. 13))
To-do lists, instant messages, Post-it notes, report cards, newspaper clippings, school assignments, letters and notes-to-self graphically tell the story of Ginny's seventh-grade year. Family issues, including her mother's remarriage and her brother's increasingly disturbing delinquent acts, share equal billing with friendship problems, changing interests and a first kiss in this convincing account of a middle-schooler's life. Ginny's efforts to follow uplifting magazine advice consistently result in disaster. Adjusting to a new dad turns out to be more difficult than she expected. Her former best friend gets the starring role in The Nutcracker. And her monthly bank statement consistently shows a balance of $5 no matter how many deposits are made. But the boy whose negative attention was the bane of her existence in the beginning of the year is her date for Spring Fling, and new interests replace her former passion for ballet. Humor balances the serious issues. Middle-school readers will recognize Ginny's world and enjoy piecing together the plot through the bits and pieces of "stuff" depicted in Castaldi's collages. A delightful collaboration. 2007, Atheneum, 128p, $12.99. Category: Graphic fiction. Ages 10 to 14. © 2007 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Bonnie L. Raasch (Library Media Connection, November/December 2007)
All the important events in Ginny's seventh grade year are told through notes, lists, doodles, poems, cut-outs, cartoons, and stickers. Ginny's family includes an older brother who gets into trouble with the law, her five-year-old brother, and her mother. When Ginny was little, her father died when hit by a drunk teenager. Now Ginny's mother has married Bob, which seems to be OK with Ginny. At school, Ginny shows success and failure through her science papers. A non-traditional, refreshing way to tell a story, this book uses humor and sarcasm to fill readers in on everything important in Ginny's life. It's amazing how much there is to learn about her just through lists and other notes. Especially funny are the notes Ginny's mother (The Management) leaves for her. Recommended. 2007, Ginee Seo Books (Simon & Schuster), 128pp., $12.99 hc. Ages 10 to 14.

Karen Coats (The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, October 2007 (Vol. 61, No. 2))
To-do lists, bank statements, class schedules, receipts, bills—this is the stuff of the days of our lives. Certainly, they tell us a lot about what is important to a year in the life of Ginny Davis, seventh-grader. As Ginny prepares to start her year, she makes back-to-school shopping lists and to-do lists, all of which are amended either by her or her mother as reality fails to match up with plans. Through the papers she collects and the occasional poems and letters that she writes, readers follow Ginny’s life as her mother remarries, her brother makes his mark on the police blotter and gets sent to military school, she has various beauty mishaps, she attends her first dance, etc. The papers are reproduced on the page, giving the book a scrapbook-style appearance, and most look completely convincing (Ginny’s handwriting on tests is a bit tidy for seventh grade, and she never seems to need to scratch out mistakes, only genuine revisions). There are clever, humorous little mysteries that repay careful reading, as when advice columns clipped from magazines connect to receipts for recommended items that then connect to plumber’s bills, hairdresser’s itemized services, and even doctor’s prescriptions to repair the damage. Holm manages to craft a genuine plot and character arc from the bits and pieces, as Ginny makes mistakes, learns from them, and mourns and adjusts to changes in her family. Readers will be inspired to keep their own stuff to see what stories emerge Review Code: R -- Recommended. (c) Copyright 2006, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 2007, Seo/Atheneum, 124p., $12.99. Grades 4-7.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Spring 2008)
Ginny's event-filled seventh-grade year is presented through attractively doodled to-do lists, notes, report cards, writing assignments, and IMs. Her widowed mother dates and remarries, her troubled older brother gets sent to military school, and Ginny contends with friendships old and new. A well-rounded portrait of Ginny and her family shines through the concise entries. Category: Intermediate Fiction. 2007, Atheneum/Seo, 120pp, 12.99. Ages 9 to 12. Rating: 3: Recommended, satisfactory in style, content, and/or illustration.