President of the Whole Fifth Grade (review)

When Brianna Justice's personal hero, the cooking celebrity Miss Delicious, makes an appearance at Brianna's elementary school and tells the students that she owes much of her success to having served as president of her fifth-grade class, Brianna makes it her personal mission to do the same; after all, more than anything else, Brianna wants to be a millionaire cupcake baker and television superstar. Along with her best friends Lauren, Becks, and Sara, Brianna spends the whole summer before fifth grade planning her campaign, but no one is prepared for Jasmine Moon, the seemingly sweet but secretly snarky new girl who shows up that fall and decides to run against Brianna. Narrated by Brianna, this lengthy novel follows the fifth-graders during the weeks of the campaign, when everything goes from being golden to being an absolute disaster. While the message here is sound if slightly didactically expressed ("I'd been so excited about what being president would mean to me, I never thought much about what it would mean to the school"), it takes the reader way too long to get there, with episode following episode following episode. There are some nice turns of events, most notably Brianna's relationship with Mrs. Wetzel, who runs the local bakery and wants to help Brianna sell cupcakes, and the satisfying conclusion shows evidence that Brianna has indeed learned a great deal. There is definite tween appeal in the on-again/off-again friendship dynamics, and those willing to stick it out will cheer for Brianna's political and personal victories.