After reading a 1000-page novel recently, followed by a
novel about the Vietnam War, I was looking for something quick and light to
enjoy! I found just the right
tasty morsel in the unique middle-grade novel, Middle School is Worse Than
Meatloaf: A Year Told Through Stuff by
Jennifer L. Holm with pictures by Elicia Castaldi.
I loved the creativity of this book – the story of 12-year
old Ginny’s first year of middle school, told entirely through, as the
sub-title explains, stuff. What
kind of stuff? All kinds! There is no traditional narrative in
this novel; the story is told through pictures of all sorts of things in
Ginny’s life: excerpts from her journal, notes from her mom, things she tears out
of magazines, receipts, checks, IMs between Ginny and her best friend, and
more.
I thought the book might be gimmicky and cute, but it has
surprising depth. Yes, the format
is its main draw, but it’s also a very real-feeling story of an adolescent struggling
through seventh grade. One of the
first pages shows Ginny’s list of goals for seventh grade, written in her
journal. In addition to the
typical challenges facing any middle school student, Ginny is also dealing with
a brand-new stepfather, an older brother whose ever-increasing pranks have her
worried about his future, and the recent loss of her previous best friend.
While you’re perusing through all of Ginny’s stuff, you come
to care about her and worry about her and root for her. There’s more here than first meets the
eye. That being said, the format
is lots of fun. There is a lot of
humor inserted among the story, as when a clipped magazine article advising a
change of hair color is shown with a receipt from the drugstore for hair color,
followed on the next page by a bill from a hair salon for fixing a botched
color job! I’ve included a
couple of sample pages here, just to give you a tiny glimpse into the
creativity and variety. All in
all, this is a funny, warm story that will appeal to any middle-grade girl.
