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Jessica Darling's older sister gives her the "IT List," a checklist on how to navigate the middle school popularity hierarchy. Megan McCafferty hails from Bayville, New Jersey, and moved to Brooklyn and Manhattan before settling in Princeton, New Jersey. as it’s capitalized throughout), selecting a first boyfriend carefully, and sticking with the IT crowd. While it was sort of neat to see how Jessica got into running and met her frenemies, it was also weird and almost caricature-like that her characters were so incessantly the same from grade 7 to grade 11, when we otherwise would have first met them.
As a huge fan of the original Jessica Darling series, or, at least, as huge of a fan as one can be while intentionally deciding not to finish said series, I was super curious about Megan McCafferty's prequel. For Jess, her sister Bethany guides her with a list of things to accomplish to have a great school experience, she needs to choose a great boyfriend, join cheer group and make the right friends. The day before seventh grade begins, twelve-year-old Jessica Darling gets a list from her sister, whose popularity and beauty made her a junior-high standout, but when she tries to follow it, all goes awry, including losing her best friend. Jessica gains a lot of wisdom about how to be a friend, but I think what she ultimately comes away with is more of a feeling that it is OKAY for friendships to change, and it’s okay for her to not understand. I mean, I guess you could argue kids didn’t really have much technology to interact with during that time so it makes sense that it wouldn’t come up in the plot too much (other than an oblique mention to Manda trying to reach Sara on one of her many electronic devices) but it’s still a little off, as is the diary entry voice without diary entry chapters (some of which are quite awkwardly spliced).There is an encounter with a male goose that had me belly laughing so hard I had to set down the book. This latest installment in the perils of Pineville Junior High can be described in just the same way as describing its title character: hilarious, sweet, and smart. jessica (the main character and protagonist of the movie) keeps making this weird and annoying whimpering noise which sounds like a seal giving birth to an even bigger seal, the ending didn't make sense, those weird facial expressions were just not it, the sara girl's voice is annoying as hell and manda (which is a weird name) is tolerable but still annoying and the red haired hope girl is like those wannabe mysterious girls. Cheerful earnestness, a few solid performances, and a thoughtful message don't save this adaptation from predictability, amateurish caricatures, and overall uneven direction and production values.
Jessica Darling is starting seventh grade, trying her best to navigate changing friendships and the mysteries of boys–with cringe-worthy embarrassments at every turn. Jessica Darling, star of Megan McCafferty's bestselling Jessica Darling series for adults, is back in a hilarious new series perfect for tween (10 to 14) girls. Wisdom Comes With Age: If you’re a fan of the older Jessica Darling novels, you know that Jessica’s grandmother Gladdie is, like, the coolest elderly person in fiction.A good series for tweens who have made their way through Dork Diaries but are not quite ready for Gossip Girl.
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