Bobby vs. Girls (Accidentally) by Lisa Yee is a fun middle grade novel for younger tweens. The first in a series, it is a great read for younger tweens looking for a realistic fiction story that they can relate to.
Bobby is about to start fourth grade. Third grade was an awful year, so he is looking forward to a new year with his best friend Holly. While they’ve been friends for years, they aren’t friends in school. You know, the whole boys and girls thing. However, just knowing that Holly will be in his class and they will be hanging out after school makes Bobby happy. But when he and Holly meet up at the annual town celebration a few days before school starts, he makes the startling discovery that she is turning into a G-I-R-L!
And what’s worse is that Holly seems to have chosen the worst, girliest girl of them all, Jillian, as her new best friend. Jillian works hard to convince Holly that boys are dumb and have cooties. Bobby has lost his best friend! Add that to the fact that he is stuck with a dumb goldfish as a pet instead of the black lab he yearns for, and it adds up to a pretty lousy first week of school.
When Bobby gets nominated to run for Student Council he doesn’t realize he will be running against Holly! All of sudden, there is a full-scale war between the boys and girls in his class.
I enjoyed Bobby vs. Girls (Accidentally). I think some of my 6th graders would be reluctant to read it because it takes place in fourth grade and they are too “cool” to read books about babies. However, I do have a few in mind that would enjoy the story. It is the perfect book for third and fourth-graders, though.
Bobby was a fun character, but I really loved his former football star father and his little sister. Both of them cracked me up in every scene! Lisa Yee really knows how to make her readers laugh out loud. I look forward to passing this one on to some of my dormant readers.
*Review copy courtesy of the publisher
The Reading Zone 
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