Teenreads.com -- YOU ARE SO NOT INVITED TO MY BAT MITZVAH! by Fiona Rosenbloom

YOU ARE SO NOT INVITED TO MY BAT MITZVAH!
Fiona Rosenbloom
Hyperion Paperbacks for Children
Fiction
ISBN-10: 0786838914
ISBN-13: 9780786838912
208 pages

Stacy Friedman has a lot to accomplish in the month before her Bat Mitzvah. She has to find the perfect Bat Mitzvah dress, join the coolest clique in school, and most importantly, convince her longtime crush Andy Goldfarb that he's in love with her so she can have her first kiss at her Bat Mitzvah party. But with a hideous new dress, a lonely mother, an uncool brother, and, to her horror, a betraying best friend, Stacy is forced to take desperate measures to make all her Bat Mitzvah dreams come true in time for the big day.

Fiona Rosenbloom has written a warm, lighthearted story of a girl who's learning about priorities, friendship, and truly good deeds. While we've seen some of the details before, such as brand-name dropping and ongoing chats with God --- and we'll probably never see anything like Stacy's gutsy and life-changing Bat Mitzvah speech --- these minor cliches and sudden epiphanies are easily overlooked thanks to a fast story and a winning, spunky protagonist.

There are no big surprises here, but as Stacy approaches the day when she symbolically becomes an adult, she learns a few important lessons about making adult choices and compromises, and about what is worth holding onto and what might not be. Readers will relate to Stacy's various dramas, such as worrying about her divorced mother (and her mother's questionable taste in dresses), wondering if Andy likes her or not, and the fear of losing a best friend.

With humor and the occasional Jewishism, YOU ARE SO NOT INVITED TO MY BAT MITZVAH! is an entertaining glimpse into one of the most meaningful events of many young girls' lives, the Bat Mitzvah. Not to mention, of course, that other important event --- the first kiss.

--- Reviewed by Emily Shaffer

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