Chrissy’s Review: Lights, Camera, Middle School by Jennifer L. Holm & Matthew Holm

Lights, Camera, Middle School (Babymouse Tales from the Locker)
written by Jennifer L. Holm & Matthew Holm
published by Random House Books for Young Readers, 2017

find it here: (affiliate links) Barnes & Noble, Amazon, iBooks, Target, Walmart, Book Depository, Goodreads

Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Did I enjoy this book? It was okay. Not my favorite young reader/middle grade read.

It was cute. The graphics/comics fit the story. I think the young readers will like them. The story was entertaining, and I could see some of it happening in middle school. BUT . . . there were some things I really didn’t like. Why were the middle school students out in the middle of the night (after midnight) doing a film shoot for a school club? No parents. No chaperones. I know kids today are more independent, and yes, I know this is a comic series about animals, but still . . . Babymouse’s mother was concerned about her friends coming over and messing up the house but she had no problem with her kid being out in the middle of the night??? And I really didn’t like Babymouse or the leads in her movie. They had bad attitudes and were mean. The crew on the film was great.

As I said, I think young readers will enjoy this book. They will get a kick out of the story and the “epic” movie, which was pretty creative. But for me, not my favorite young reader story.

 

Would I recommend it: I’ll let my kids read it, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to recommend it.

 

About the book – from Goodreads: It’s a new kind of book for Babymouse! Fans of Dork Diaries, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and James Patterson’s Middle School books, this is going to be epic. . . .

For Babymouse, middle school is like a monster movie. You can never be sure who’s a friend and who’s an enemy, and the halls are filled with mean-girl zombies. Instead of brains, the zombies hunger for stuff—the perfect wedge sandals or the right shade of sparkly lip gloss—and they expect everyone to be just like them.

But Babymouse doesn’t want to fit in—she wants to stand out! So she joins the film club to write and direct a sweeping cinematic epic. Will making the film of her dreams turn into a nightmare?

Thanks to Babymouse, middle school gets schooled in this hilarious new series from bestselling authors Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm.