Revenge of the Flower Girls

Revenge of the Flower Girls
 Jennifer Ziegler 
New York: Scholastic Books, 2014, Ages 9-15

Triplet sisters take turns telling the story of their older sister's wedding. Or rather, how they try to stop the wedding, and why. They love social studies as much as they love their sister's ex-boyfriend, and get up to all sorts of antics as they work together to try to get the two back together and stop the wedding.

The author manages to make the three girls' perspectives different from each other, in keeping with each girl's personality and temperament as described by the other two. Ms. Ziegler used highly effective descriptors to get inside the heads of her characters. One of my favorites was the following; to express a moment of the disillusionment that accompanies change, particularly for preteens: "As if someone grabbed the world and shook it like a snowglobe, stirring everything up."

There is one picture on the front cover depicting the wedding. The bride and groom have their backs turned. In front of them stand the three girls in pink dresses matched with high-top tennis shoes. One looks like she's plotting something, one looks miffed, and the other looks amused. Since all three wore all of these expressions throughout the book, it's hard to tell which is which. Maybe that's the author's intent!

I enjoyed this book thoroughly! The three narrators evoke the reader's empathy. The ways they talk about their struggles- dealing with the aftermath of their parents' divorce, the change of their sister getting married, and just being eleven- ring very true, even if they adore U.S. history and government more than any sixth-graders I've ever met. I recommend for all ages, but especially for grades 5-8.

Reviewed by Abigail Kruse