P.G. Kain

When Brittany Rush returns home from a year spent in stupid Hong Kong where her stupid mother was transferred for her stupid job (Brittany's words, not mine), she finds that she is no longer the commercial world's It girl. For someone like Brittany, whose life revolves around 30 second snippets of fame, this is a disaster beyond compare. Think the-sinking-of-the-Titanic disastrous.

She's losing all her coveted spots to Phoebe, a girl who previously couldn't even remember her lines, and she doesn't like it. Her solution? Cozy up to the girl's brother and good-luck charm, Liam, in an effort to distract and destroy the competition. What ensues is a hilarious and heart-warming journey as Brittany discovers there's more to life than fame.

I loved this book. Absolutely LOVED it. There are those books that take a while to get into and then there are those books where the voice appeals to you immediately and you just know you are going to adore it. Famous for Thirty Seconds falls into the latter category for me. I loved Brittany Rush from the instant I read the first sentence. She's spunky and determined, not to mention over-confident and overly dramatic to a degree only a 13-year-old girl could achieve. There was no waiting and hoping, or straining to forge a connection with the story line or the main character. This book appealed to the tween girl in me on every level. The proof is the fact that I received the book in the mail yesterday evening and I finished it this morning somewhere around 3am.

The cover is just oh-so-adorable and P.G. Kain has a pitch-perfect middle grade voice. It's smart and sassy and with it, he creates an ideal heroine for tween girls. She's not boy-crazy or willing to sacrifice who she is to please someone else. Brittany does only what is absolutely right for her. It may take a few missteps for her to realize what she really wants and what's really important, but once she figures it out, she goes for it. It's a series I can't wait to share with my niece.

In to Middle Grade fiction? Buy it. Want an example of how to write a great MG novel for tween girls? Buy it. Have a tween daughter/granddaughter/cousin/sister/niece who likes to read? Buy it. You won't be disappointed.… (meer)

Reviewed by The Compulsive Reader for TeensReadToo.com

Most 13-year-old girls would be devastated to learn that their family has to move across the country from sunny California to New Jersey.

But most girls aren't Dorie Dilts.

Dorie is a scientist, and a bit of a loner. She has long been observing the popular girls at school, envious of their friendships. So moving to a completely different school makes her excited, because now she has the perfect opportunity to put her scientific experiment into play.

Objectives: To get popular. Hypothesis: If she gets dumped by Grant, then she will become popular. Results: Inconclusive...perhaps?

The first in THE SOCIAL EXPERIMENTS OF DORIE DILTS, DUMPED BY POPULAR DEMAND is inventive, smart, and funny. While Dorie may be wise in all things academia, her social awkwardness is something that girls of any age can relate to.

Dorie's discovery of true friendship and the meaning of popularity will be unforgettable in this humorous novel that has more heat than an exothermic reaction!… (meer)

Gr 5-8- Dorie, 12, was a loner in California. Now she has moved to New Jersey, and she yearns to be popular in her new school. She is an intelligent, science-loving student who makes use of the scientific method to achieve her goal. She analyzes the popular group and studies its members to determine the common variable they share. Along the way she meets Dixie, who is not popular but doesn't care. He and Dorie become fast friends, but she is still determined to be part of the group she has nicknamed the Holly Trinity. She eventually figures out that the commonality among the girls is that they have all been dumped by Grant and sets out to follow suit, but discovers that being part of the in group is not all she thought it would be. The author cleverly uses scientific principles in a humorous fashion to make this book appeal even to students for whom science is their least favorite subject. A lighthearted romance that even reluctant readers will enjoy… (meer)