Queen B

QUEEN B is the companion novel to Ms. Roberts's The Queen of Second Place. I haven't read the first book, which made me a little nervous when I started to read QUEEN B. Well, I had no need to be nervous because this stands up very well on its own. The heroine, Cassie Howard, is a flawed but normal teenager who believes that her talent is coming in second place. She spends the whole novel making very big mistakes because she does things without thinking. She has a remarkably patient "hot" boyfriend who she just wants to hear say that he loves her. Her best friend is Hayley, who is also very patient with Cassie, but never lets Cassie get off the hook for stupid things that she has done. My favorite characters are the gang of popular girls, Sterling Carter, Tiffi,and Ros. Ros is Sterling's best friend, but since she is dating a boy in Cassie's crowd she travels between the two groups, which lets the reader--and Cassie--get insight into the character of Sterling. Cassie also has problems at home when her dad decides to quit his job because there are no vacations and he becomes a house-husband. Her mother hits the roof and there is tension in the home. Cassie inadvertently lets her grandmother, who doesn't get along with her mother, know what is happening and Grandma comes out to "save" the family. I really believe that grandma is the most intelligent character in the story and I enjoyed her manipulation of her daughter and son-in-law. Her little brother, Trevor, an eighth grader, is having love problems and doesn't want people to know that he can also cook and sew. I really liked going into Cassie's world. She was making all kinds of mistakes but also learning from them. Most of the characters in QUEEN B aren't flat but have many layers. I especially love the haiku written by Cassie that ends many of the chapters. I also loved the chapter names such as Cupidity, Kiss Off, and Weirdly Normal. Most of them were plays on ideas and words, which I especially enjoy! There also were brilliant lessons to be learned by Cassie and which I believe that we all need to remember. So buzz by your library, book store, or wherever you get your books and pick up a copy of QUEEN B. Reviewed by: Marta Morrison