I received this book for free from HarperCollins in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Frazzled by Booki VivatPublished by HarperCollins on September 27th, 2016
Genres: Contemporary, Middle-Grade
Source: HarperCollins
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Meet Abbie Wu! She’s about to start middle school and she’s totally in crisis.
Abbie Wu is in crisis—and not just because she’s stuck in a family that doesn’t quite get her or because the lunch ladies at school are totally corrupt or because everyone seems to have a “Thing” except her. Abbie Wu is in crisis always.
Heavily illustrated and embarrassingly honest, Frazzled dives right into the mind of this hilariously neurotic middle school girl as she tries to figure out who she is, where she belongs, and how to survive the everyday disasters of growing up. With Abbie’s flair for the dramatic and natural tendency to freak out, middle school has never seemed so nerve-racking!
Packed with hilarious black-and-white illustrations and doodles throughout, Frazzled takes readers through Abbie Wu’s hysterical middle school adventures.
I just started my last-ish year of college and the main character of Frazzled starts middle school in this book yet despite the clear age difference, never has a book been more applicable to my life.
Frazzled is absolutely adorable, quotable and extremely relatable. It’s about many things. Familial relationships, changing friendships and the need to find your “thing”. I think we can all agree that finding your “thing” is not as easy as it seems. It is actually quite stressful and Abbie Wu would agree with you.
Abbie is not at all excited to start middle school (I mean who would be?) because it is “the middle of all middles” and is thus guaranteed to suck. When school starts, she struggles with the change but her friends find themselves fitting right in as they get more invested in their “things.” Abbie Wu doesn’t have a thing though (NEITHER DO I) and is stuck in study hall. Even worse, Abbie is stuck being her brother’s younger sister and she feels like she’ll never be as good as he is. All her teachers know her as Peter Wu’s sister and they forgot that she is more than just HIS SISTER.
Over the course of the book, Abbie Wu takes charge as everyone revolts against bad cafeteria food (this is also 100% relatable for me) and organizes an underground food trade. She grows into middle school as she finds her people.
Abbie’s struggle to find her place in the world and in her social environment is accessible to a wide audience and I really enjoyed watching her grow as a human being over the course of the book.
I would recommend Frazzled not only to younger readers but literally anyone who reads Middle Grade because this book IS SO SO CUTE. It has so many wonderful illustrations and I am pretty sure I yelled YAAAS every other page because I feel this book on so many levels.
Reasons to read this book: Single parent who is awesome, adorable MC, food porn (there are SO MANY delicious baked goods in this book), cute relationships, fun illustrations, BECAUSE IT’S A BOOK.
4 Hot Espressos
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Shane Morgan
Nice review. I don’t mind middle grade books and I have found some relatable too, even though I’m 30 🙂 This one sounds really good and I like that it has so many different aspects. Glad you enjoyed it.
Rashika
Thanks, Shane! 🙂
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