The Friendship Matchmaker

Title: The Friendship Matchmaker
Author: Randa Abdel-Fattah
First Published: Scholastic 2011

Lara Zany in Potts Court Primary's 'Official Friendship Matchmaker'. she is writer of the Friendship Rules-which she is certain work, all friendships are approved by her and people come to her to sort out all their fights. she can take the Loneliest Loser and find them a best friend. Then Emily Wong turns up on the first day of 2nd term and disagrees to conform, why should she have to eat cheese sandwiches instead of meatballs for lunch? why shouldn't she paint her nails in different colours? Lara's rules are about to be put to the test.

Quick Review
a brilliant book for girls of about the age of nine. a nice reminder of how special friendship is, how it works and the importance of being yourself. it's simply written, with a big font, only about 170 pages with lists of rules from Lara's Friendship Manual.

Quote
She was obviously in the mood for looking like a zebra: black & white striped t-shirt, black skirt with a thick white hem, black headband and white hair tie, and one black and one white earring. Plus black runners and white socks. "is it international Save the Zebra Day?" i asked.
she smoothed and her skirt. "Thanks" she said enthusiastically "i do look great"
What Cheek!

Babble
i enjoyed the friendship matchmaker, though it's clearly meant for a younger audience. though it's clearly bad the way Lara encourages people to completely change who they are to make friends you understand why she does it. it's clear there's a story behind it. this is a laboured point from the beginning, i found it to be a bit too obvious, which would be fine for nine year olds. the back story of Lara comes out at the end, but it was a bit rushed.

Emily's a great character i loved hearing about her ideas and clothes. she has a shirt, but i won't ruin the surprise :) she's also kind, and smart and determined to be true to herself and unique.
Lara's lovely to because behind her rules is actually a desire for everyone to have a best friend, she just isn't sure how to go about it.
it also has a cute cover ans swirls and stars throughout the book.
best of all i think there's going to be a sequel

The Diary of a Would-Be Princess

I've decided to do a series review of The Diary of a Would-Be Princess series, now published just as books 1 to 3. the first to were published as Diary of a would be princess and a Tyranny of Toads, but with the release of the third book this year they have been reprinted and just named books one to three.




This series is aimed at girls of about 9-12. i read the first two books when i was 10 and really loved them, so when i spotted the third in the library last week i grabbed it, and I'll admit i still love Jillian James as much as when i met her when we were both in year 5. these are about the average life of an Australian school girl pretty much, but they're hilarious and interesting. Jillian always struggles with making and keeping friends, and excepting her self in her current situation. the moment she gets things sorted the next year seems to rush in with new challenges. she says in the second book "last year i got in trouble for not compromising enough, now I'm in trouble for compromising too much!" that's an annotated quote because i donated my copy to the local library and can't check the exact quote. every year has adventures and surprises, like the dreaded sports carnival, new teachers, new students, homework, horrible brothers, unfair parents and always a happy ending at the end on the school year. it's hard to explain all 3 books, but that's the best can do. search the titles and you can get good blurbs.

these books start with Jillian in year 5 with the lovely Mrs Bright having to start a journal. the book is scattered with comments by Mrs bright, it's such a nice touch. in the 2nd book, sometimes called a Tyranny of Toads Jillian is in year 6 with the terrifying Mr Rose and her diary is kept carefully at home hidden in her undies draw, as all girls do with their precious things (i swear, i actually do). their are no teacher comments this year, instead her older brother Richard leaves her sticky notes, which get stuck in. in the most recent, third diary Jillian is starting high school, and it's an exciting year. this year Richard leaves her famous, inspiration quotes from a calender he received for Christmas, usually cleverly annotated to annoy his little sister.

Jillian is another of my favourite characters. she's so clever, funny and insightful. i challenge you not to love her. in my last review i talked about how i couldn't believe Cameron Wolfe from Fighting Ruben Wolfe wasn't real, i feel the same way about Jillian.she's so perfectly flawed, always solving her problems, and causing more. I wish she was my best friend, we'd get along so well. her insight makes this a great book for mothers to share with their daughters. Diary of a Would-Be is not yet another, shallow, sugar-coated book, it's a good read, with character development. i was a bit too old for the 3rd book, it really is not the under 12s, but i could understand exactly what Jillian was feeling, and apply parts of it to year 10.all three book are filled with quotes from famous people, books and plays, like hamlet and Buddha, and new words like scapegoat. this is the perfect book for girls about 9-12, funny, interesting, with a happy ending.
honestly, these series is one of my favourites in case you haven't guessed, though all you lovely readers are a tad too old :)

sorry this post is such a mess, i ramble a lot. I'm working on it.