It's Not Easy Being Bad (Bad Girls)

From Publishers Weekly In the third novel about Mikey and Margalo, heroines of Bad Girls and Bad, Badder, Baddest, Newbery Medalist Voigt demonstrates that, indeed, it's not easy being bad: Mikey and Margalo, now in junior high, are working overtime at their schemes and plots and machinations. Unfortunately, Voigt seems to be having difficulty, too: despite many scathingly witty moments and sharp insights here, elements of the story feel trumped up. Previously unfettered by their peers' opinions, Mikey and Margalo are forced to reconsider their maverick behavior when they enter the brave new world of seventh grade. As Margalo puts it, "It's not really being popular I want. I just want not to be unpopular." But when Mikey's ill-considered plan to ingratiate herself with the popular crowd backfires, both girls are out for revenge. A sample: Margalo takes to heartily greeting Rhonda, a ringleader of the popular girls, by calling her "Barbie"; when Rhonda is flirting with an eighth-grade boy, Margalo humiliates her with, "And I see you brought Ken to school with you today." Voigt, however, starts striking false notes. Margalo, for example, is now billed as clever at fashion, able to assemble fantastic looks from thrift-store shopping, but the author lacks the girly-girl enthusiasm of, say, a Phyllis Reynolds Naylor or a Caroline Cooney to credibly integrate Margalo's sudden stylishness into the story line. Readers will know the attention to clothes is akin to a gun in Act One of a play, and sure enough, Margalo's prize thrift-store purchase turns out to be a popular girl's mom's discard. While more intelligent than most similarly themed middle-grade fiction, this Mikey and Margalo installment doesn't stand up to its predecessors. Ages 9-13. Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. From School Library Journal Grade 4-7-Mikey and Margalo are back and enduring the daily challenges of junior high. This third title in the series is very similar to the others, and while it reads fairly well on its own, there are some details that may confuse readers who are unfamiliar with the earlier books. Now in seventh grade, the best friends still vacillate between desperately wanting to be popular and relishing their status as outcasts. They alternate between competing with and comforting one another. Major traumas include Mikey's sneaky campaign to be allowed to play on the eighth-grade tennis team, and Margalo's shame at being discovered as a thrift-store shopper. While Voigt successfully captures the nature of being a female adolescent, Mikey and Margalo are so spiteful and manipulative that it's hard to really care about or truly root for them. This is a quick but fairly empty read, to be added only where Bad Girls (1996) and Bad, Badder, Baddest (1997, both Scholastic) have a following.