Shannon's best friend Adrienne has just joined The Group. The Group is led by Jen, the most popular girl in the class. Getting into The Group is hard, and once you're in the group, you never quite know where you stand. Shannon never really figures out if she's in The Group or not. All she knows is that she's losing her best friend to the others. To make matters worse, her older sister is mean to her, to the point of physical and emotional bullying. All of this triggers a form of anxiety and OCD within Shannon that manifests itself as stomach aches and counting objects over and over again. Shannon has to learn the hard way that being in The Group might not be the most important thing in the world, even if it feels like it is. I loved this story. In elementary school I constantly felt like I was missing out on all of the cool things the other clicks were doing. It takes many years to realise that you are never late to the party, there is no party. Everyone feels as alone and isolated and confused as you do at some point in their life. I think this is an important story that I want to bring to the students at the school I work at. There are so many students that must feel like their being left out, that they aren't cool enough, that they aren't good looking enough to be with the popular kids. It takes a book like this to tell them that it doesn't really matter, that you should make your own group and do the things that you enjoy doing. Highly recommend this for anyone who has ever felt left out or sad about not having enough friends.
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