The Second Favorite Daughters Club 1

January 29, 2024
Santana is tired of feeling like a “leftover” in her family, especially when
compared to her older sister Victoria, who “was good at everything: academic decathlon, singing, math, you name it.” Meanwhile Casey, her father, and her younger sister have just moved to New Saybrook, Conn., and while most things are new, the feeling of being left out in her family remains. Her father and “half feral” sister are “two peas in a pod,” but all Casey wants is to be “normal,” a desire reinforced by her mother’s comings and goings, which have Casey feeling extra lonely. When the two seventh graders meet at school, they instantly bond over their sense that they’re each the second-choice child in their families, forming the Second Favorite Daughter’s Club and vowing vengeance against their sisters. Casey’s pain at her mother’s casual attitude toward parenting is deeply sympathetic, as is Santana’s frustration at her parents’ seemingly single-minded focus on Victoria. Both characters, who read as white, are fully formed, with unique flaws and personality traits that allow each to shine in this on-the-nose telling of familial tumult and sibling rivalry by Oakes (The Black Coats). Ages 10–up.

February 1, 2024
Two overlooked middle schoolers hatch plans to get the better of their exasperating families. Santana Barnes is sick of having to watch her older sister Victoria's ballet recitals and tired of constantly being beholden to overachieving Victoria's busy routines. Casey Hammond has just moved to town with her father and younger sister, Sage. She feels like a third wheel, the serious, cautious one filling in for her flighty absentee mom, while her free-spirited father has fun with playful Sage. As the new arrival, she's in search of meaningful connection. Santana and Casey's serendipitous meeting and ensuing friendship form the heart of the story, which is narrated in their alternating third-person points of view. The two girls confide in one another about their frustration, loneliness, and wish to be treated differently by their parents. Santana, however, is also determined to knock her sister down a peg with some elaborate plans--"tiny earthquakes that would jumble and rearrange Victoria's perfect life." Cupcake sabotage and purple slime are involved. Charting an appealing middle path between the easy entertainment of madcap humor and lengthy meditations on difficult feelings, this novel contains elements of both but situates its protagonists within loving families and a largely positive social environment, with palpable sadness nonetheless affecting their lives and choices. Main characters are cued white. Paced to entertain with humorous, richly developed protagonists; a compelling, clever read. (Fiction. 10-14)

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March 1, 2024
Grades 5-7 At their new school, seventh-grade girls Santana and Casey become fast friends after discovering that each is her parents' "second favorite daughter." Each enjoys talking with someone who understands her unhappiness, based on her comparative lack of parental approval. But after they form a secret organization, The Second Favorite Daughters Club, each girl's yearning for even-handed appreciation within her family quickly degrades into willingness to take mean-spirited revenge on her only sibling. Santana sets out to sabotage her older sister, Victoria's near-professional-level ballet training and performances, while Casey secretly adds vinegar to the soil of her single father's houseplants during the week when her little sister is in charge of watering them. The well-paced, third-person narration focuses more on Santana or on Casey in alternate chapters. Although the two club members' occasional ruthlessness sometimes makes them come across as unsympathetic protagonists, events near the story's end have a softening effect on the characters and will probably make readers glad they persevered. This involving narrative is the first volume in the Second Favorite Daughters series.

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