Review: Smells Like Tween Spirit

Smells Like Tween Spirit by Laurie Gelman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

4.5 stars rounded up. This is a fast semi-humorous read. There is a good bit of seriousness to this particular book.

I've followed this series (can only 4 books be considered a series???) from the beginning. These books started out a little sillier than the last two books. But that is fine with me, it just shows me how all of the players are growing. I learned quite a bit about pubescent boys who are training for wrestling. Yikes!

I love the fact that Jen is still her usual irreverent self, this time becoming a Pioneer Middle School (PMS), mat mom. Jen is still teaching spinning, taking care of her granddaughter at times, her father, and her husband and let us not forget taking care of herself. She is a busy new-millennium Grandmom and I wish I had half of her energy and sense of humor.

In this book, we have unfortunate and sad things happening-but we also have some very childish things going on and that was with the adult children/ LOL! It just goes to show you that around your parents you never have really grown up!

*ARC supplied by Henry Holt and Co./Macmillan Publishers, the author, and NetGalley.

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SYNOPSIS: "From the author of Class Mom and You’ve Been Volunteered comes Laurie Gelman's next laugh-out-loud novel Smells Like Tween Spirit.

As a new Mat Mom of the Pioneer Middle School (PMS) Wrestling team, Jen Dixon finds herself thrown in the middle of the “guerrilla war against so-called perfect mothers," armed only with her cutting wit and acerbic sense of humor. (New York Times Book Review)

Handling a whole host of new challenges, from the dreaded seventh-grade science fair to a school fundraiser (again!), Jen faces the somewhat-terrifying new social dynamics of the wrestling moms with her trademark combination of reluctance and exceptional delivery.

Between school events and teaching spin classes, Jen finds herself fully immersed in sports mom competitiveness. These parents seem perfectly unassuming, until their kids start to wrestle, and they become raging pubescent monsters. Learning to navigate this new world while fielding calls from the principal because of Max’s newfound misogynistic behavior, Jen steels herself for the indignities of middle-school life—with her loyal spin class attendees and her bossy four-year-old granddaughter giving her the strength she needs to press on.

Mix in a Parent Night, New Year’s Party, and Valentine’s Day Dance, and Jen Dixon certainly has her hands, and her calendar, full. And through it all, Jen continues to charm with her riotously funny quips and memorable one-liners.