The Clique Summer Collection #1: Massie (Clique Series) by Lisi Harrison is the first of the Clique Summer Collection books. I’ve never read the Clique books but every year I have a handful of students who love them. I’ve flipped through them before but I’ve never sat down and read one all the way through.
Massie is a spoiled brat. In fact, spoiled probably isn’t even a strong enough word. She drove me crazy throughout the book, tossing out designer names, treating her friends and parents like dirt, and generally being a miserable human being. Yet, I couldn’t put the book down. This is chick-lit for kids, silly, over-the-top, and fun to laugh at. You would never want to be friends with Massie but you totally love laughing at her insanity!
I know there are some people who think the Clique series is teaching tweens to focus solely on looks and designer brands but my students laugh at that idea. They tell me all the time that they know the books are fiction and they would never even talk to someone like Massie in real life. But they do love reading about girls like her.
Don’t forget! You can win all 5 Clique Summer Collection books at my blog by entering here!!!
Filed under: 48 hour book challenge, reviews | Tagged: 48 hour book challenge, the clique | 1 Comment »
I’ve been reading this one on and off all day. It’s definitely a great book to flip through and read what interests you. But I love these books because they always hook my students. The illustrations by Simon Basher are fun to look at and always catch my students’ attention. 
Jack is still recovering from the death of his beloved dog, Skye. He also hates the big, mean black cat that has taken up residence in his neighborhood. But when he gets his own kitten, he starts to change his mind. Until his new kitten also disappears, leaving him.
But now Nate is dead. And on the night he crashed his car, he and Cora had a huge fight. Now she has to start school at the same high school Nate went to. She is struggling to survive with her parents, who have completely shut down. Her mother has become insanely overprotective, requiring that Cora be home by her 4pm curfew and never go anywhere without a parent. Dad has shut down completely, locking himself in his study, drinking gin and tonics and ignoring his wife and daughter.
Scarlett Martin lives in Manhattan, in the fabulous art deco Hopewell Hotel. Sounds glamorous, right? For Scarlett and her family, it’s anything but. The hotel is falling apart, the staff has been let go, and the money is drying up. It’s Scarlett’s fifteenth birthday- the day each Martin child is given a suite in the hotel to care for on their own. When a guest actually shows up to stay in Scarlett’s suite, everyone is shocked. And when that guest, Mrs. Amberson, turns out to be a C-list starlet intent on spending most of her time with Scarlett, she doesn’t really know how to react. Throw in a cute new boy in her brother’s acting troupe, an older sister who seems to be hiding something, and a younger sister who totally hates her and Scarlett has the makings of an interesting summer. She’s not quite sure if it will be the best summer ever or the worst.
