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A review by mrskatiefitz
Cassidy's Guide to Everyday Etiquette (and Obfuscation) by Sue Stauffacher
4.0
When her great-grandmother dies, Cassidy receives an unexpected gift in the will: an etiquette class at Miss Melton-Mowry's School of Poise and Purpose, to be held during summer vacation. Cassidy, who would much rather be planning and executing pranks with her best friend, Jack, and preparing for her future career as a hobo, is horrified by all the rules she would have to follow in order to have even passable manners, and she goes into the class with a poor attitude. When a prank on the instructor goes wrong, however, and Jack suddenly seems really interested in a pretty new girl in the neighborhood, Cassidy realizes it might be time for her to start growing up, too, despite how uncomfortable the idea makes her.
The setting of this book is obviously not familiar to most kids, but they will see little pieces of themselves in Cassidy. At eleven, she feels the pressure to grow up and begin thinking about how to behave properly in public and how to impress romantic interests, but she is also eager to hold onto the habits of childhood a bit longer, as she is starting to glimpse a future where many of her current games and interests will no longer be appropriate. Because of her immaturity, and her mischievous personality, she is sometimes a bit annoying, especially for the adult reader, but kids who feel as she does will relate strongly to her desire to find the fun in everything and postpone maturity as long as possible. There are few female characters like Cassidy in recent children's books, so it is nice to see a different personality and worldview represented.
This book ends on an odd note, which seems out of sync with the rest of the story. The great-grandmother's strange inheritance was difficult enough to swallow, and her follow-up gift after Cassidy finishes the etiquette class comes completely out of left field and almost seems to be setting the reader up for a sequel in an entirely different genre. (No sequel has been announced so far, but the potential is certainly there.) Another problem with this book is the cover. The images selected appearing on it seem to be geared specifically toward girls, even though there is nothing about this book that would preclude boys from reading it. The title also makes this sound like a very girly story, when, in fact, the entire point of Cassidy as a character is that she is not overly girly.
Read-alikes for Cassidy's Guide to Everyday Etiquette (and Obfuscation) include the Hunter Moran books by Patricia Reilly Giff, Revenge of the Bridesmaids by Jennifer Ziegler, and the Marty McGuire series by Kate Messner. Though middle school readers might enjoy it, it skews a bit younger, and would probably appeal more to 4th and 5th graders, especially those who already know the author's Donuthead books.
The setting of this book is obviously not familiar to most kids, but they will see little pieces of themselves in Cassidy. At eleven, she feels the pressure to grow up and begin thinking about how to behave properly in public and how to impress romantic interests, but she is also eager to hold onto the habits of childhood a bit longer, as she is starting to glimpse a future where many of her current games and interests will no longer be appropriate. Because of her immaturity, and her mischievous personality, she is sometimes a bit annoying, especially for the adult reader, but kids who feel as she does will relate strongly to her desire to find the fun in everything and postpone maturity as long as possible. There are few female characters like Cassidy in recent children's books, so it is nice to see a different personality and worldview represented.
This book ends on an odd note, which seems out of sync with the rest of the story. The great-grandmother's strange inheritance was difficult enough to swallow, and her follow-up gift after Cassidy finishes the etiquette class comes completely out of left field and almost seems to be setting the reader up for a sequel in an entirely different genre. (No sequel has been announced so far, but the potential is certainly there.) Another problem with this book is the cover. The images selected appearing on it seem to be geared specifically toward girls, even though there is nothing about this book that would preclude boys from reading it. The title also makes this sound like a very girly story, when, in fact, the entire point of Cassidy as a character is that she is not overly girly.
Read-alikes for Cassidy's Guide to Everyday Etiquette (and Obfuscation) include the Hunter Moran books by Patricia Reilly Giff, Revenge of the Bridesmaids by Jennifer Ziegler, and the Marty McGuire series by Kate Messner. Though middle school readers might enjoy it, it skews a bit younger, and would probably appeal more to 4th and 5th graders, especially those who already know the author's Donuthead books.