From Publishers Weekly
Koss's suspenseful and realistic portrayal of a popular middle school clique's devolution unfolds though six narrators. In a starred review, PW said, "Readers will identify with and remember these characters, and may think twice before sacrificing their individuality for the sake of popularity." Ages 10-14. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Grade 5-8-When the other members of Maya's clique decide to ostracize her, the girl is shocked and devastated. She has no clue what she could have done wrong, and neither do Brianna, Ren?e, or Darcy. However, Candace is their leader, the self-assured one, the one who decides who's in and who's not, and, suddenly, Maya's not. In brief chapters that jump from one girl's perspective to another, a picture emerges of social status and peer pressure among middle schoolers who are struggling to figure out who they are, where they belong, and maybe even what is right. The voice of each character is clear and will be familiar to any adolescent. Koss's exceptional skill at evoking not only the girls, but also their families, makes this an important story for those in the midst of the cruelty of middle-school society. This provocative page-turner will be passed from one girl to the next like a note with the latest gossip.Susan Oliver, Tampa-Hillsborough Public Library System, FL Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From AudioFile
Middle-school girls being mean to each other? Unfortunately, it's an all too common and painful experience for most teen girls. Maya feels lucky to be part of a group, but when the leader, Candace, decides Maya is "out," the other three girls blindly follow suit and shun her. Shifts in loyalties, sniping, betrayals, and some kind words fly between the five actresses in this full-cast audio production. This realistic story is not pretty. But it may be cathartic for any middle-school girl trying to find her way through the intricate web of adolescent friendships. M.M.O. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
From Booklist
"My family had moved from one end of Los Angeles to the other, doubling our rent to get away from fear, and now here I was in safe suburbia, taking cover and watching my back." Without explanation, Maya has been dropped by the clique of five popular middle-school girls to which she belonged. Three of the other girls in the group aren't sure of the reason either, although they won't admit their puzzlement; they just look to the brash, intimidating Candace for direction. With chapters presented in alternate voices, each girl relays her own version of events--the cruelties, alliances, questions, guilt, and anxiety--as they first shun Maya, and then gradually turn on each other, struggling between listening to their own consciences and following their desire to please Candace. Through the multiple narratives, Koss expands the story, showing readers each girl's family in scenes of richly distinct homelife that help to define the sometimes similar voices. The story's real strength, however, lies in the emotional weight contained in small, beautifully articulated moments--a sneer about a sandwich that becomes significant and threatening results in three girls ordering the same lunch: "twins on the inside." Readers, particularly girls, weathering the agonizing, variable minefields of cliques will easily find themselves in this taut, authentic story. See the Read-alike column on the opposite page for more examples of the multiple-narrative technique. Gillian Engberg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
The Girls (Young Adult Series) ANNOTATION
Each of the girls in a middle-school clique reveals the strong, manipulative hold one of the group exerts on the others, causing hurt and self-doubt among the girls.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
The girls: Maya, Brianna, Darcy, Renée...and popular, fascinating, dangerous Candace. Five friends ruled by one ringleader who plays games to test their loyalty—and then decides who's in the group and who's out. Each of the girls has her say in this fast-paced and absolutely believable novel set in the war zone of middle school cliques. The author of the highly praised The Ashwater Experiment, Amy Koss has once again crafted a "truly original piece of fiction brimming with humor and insight."—Starred Horn Book review for The Aswater Experiment
SYNOPSIS
One Saturday morning a girl finds out that her group of friends, for reasons unknown, has decided to exclude her. As the short novel moves over the course of the weekend, five girls narrate in turns, each moving the story forward as well as providing sometimes unwitting commentary on her friends' versions of events. The story is the stuff of series paperbacks, but Koss succeeds in taking it to its dramatic core without becoming generic.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
Koss's suspenseful and realistic portrayal of a popular middle school clique's devolution unfolds though six narrators. In a starred review, PW said, "Readers will identify with and remember these characters, and may think twice before sacrificing their individuality for the sake of popularity." Ages 10-14. (Mar.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Children's Literature
Beautiful and popular Candace calls all the shots. When she picks Maya to join her select group of friends, Maya is on top of the world. Then, bam! She's dumped as suddenly and inexplicably as she was picked. Koss recreates the joys and cruelties of middle school cliques so convincingly that the reader can hear the giggles and feel the mortification. The story is told from the alternating firstperson viewpoints of all five girls who form the clique. Though their voices are similar, their perspectives are not, giving this tale of peer pressure and popularity an interesting twist. Seeing five ways of interpreting the same events endows this version with a more complex psychological involvement than is found in most treatments of this familiar subject. Especially intriguing is the glimpse into the mind of Candace, the controlling queen, whose thoughts and motivations may surprise and enlighten readers. Meanwhile, Maya's journey to discovering her real friends is engaging and fastpaced. 2000, Dial, Ages 8 to 12, $16.99. Reviewer: Betty Hicks
VOYA
The book held my interest. It is set up so that every chapter gives the point of view of a different character. All the girls have a hard time telling how they feel about what is going on with their clique. I enjoyed having to continue reading to learn what the others thought. I also think that the characters in the book are very realistic. The way they talk is how real people talk. Fitting into a clique is a very real problem that many kids deal with every day. Girls will enjoy this book more than boys because the book is all about girls and their problems. The reading level is for middle school students. This is good because the main characters are in middle school and kids like to read about people their own age. VOYA CODES: 4Q 4P M J (Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses; Broad general YA appeal; Middle School, defined as grades 6 to 8; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9). 2000, Dial, Ages 12 to 15, 128p, $16.99. Reviewer: Jamie Esposito, Teen Reviewer
Alan Review
The Girls explores the dynamics of middle school cliques that one of my colleagues calls, "the vicious sixth grade game." Koss' use of the first person narrative adds an appealing depth to what might have been an otherwise trivial account of a usual adolescent tale of woe. Instead, each of the story's five girls reveals the strong manipulative hold the leader has on both them and their peer group. Koss clearly knows her subject. As she examines the nature of friendships in this fragile age group of preadolescents, we walk away with an understanding of not only the hurt and betrayal inherent in clique relationships, but also an added appreciation for the resilience and maturity required of these very young ladies. Funny, honest, and fast-paced, The Girls will appeal to middle school readers, and it is perfect for in-class reading and discussion. Genre: Friendship 2000, Dial, 121p
The Five Owls
Each chapter of The Girls by Amy Goldman Koss, is told from the point of view of one of five different middle-school-age girls. Although the book could slip into cliché, it doesn't because Goldman Koss captures the details of these young friendships with pinpoint accuracy. Most people can remember being flooded with misery when a friend's mother answered the phone and said something like, "She's on her way to Darcy's.... Aren't you going too, dear?" and—bam—it feels like a door slamming in one's face. The first voice in The Girls is Maya's describing that bam feeling. "That's when tears filled my eyes. I suddenly had no friends. I tried to think of someone I could call...But it had been so long, and I guess I'd dropped everyone else when Candace and her crowd had come along." Maya knows that her time of being in with the in crowd—Candace's crowd—is over. Though the chapters are short and zippy, each of the five girls' personalities emerges. Their parents also seem real and, alas, mostly ready to brush off both their children's aches and ethical dilemmas. When Renee admits that she feels guilty over her treatment of Maya, her mother says, "You're not responsible for someone else's guest list. Save your squirms for your own embarrassing mistakes." Maya's father tells her only, "Maybe you'll never laugh about this, but one day it won't hurt quite so badly." For now, it does hurt badly. By the time Maya heads to school on Monday she is crouching between cars, trying to hide from her so-called "friends." The other girls in the group are also suffering, all agonizing about how to keep Candace's friendship and not become the outcast like Maya. It is often hard totell where Candace's loyalties are or who she will turn on next. One of the girls is picturing being torn to shreds. Another is thinking "My parents are falling apart, my friends were falling apart. I could picture myself falling apart limb by limb, scattered arms and legs, vertebrae and ribs—like a mess of fried chicken bones after a meal." The painful knot unravels perhaps a bit less agonizingly than in real life, but young readers will feel a satisfying thump of justice at an ending that not only shows the three outcast girls choosing to befriend each other, outside the orbit of the nasty Candace, but also shows Candace's number-one toady about to head for a fall. 2000, Dial, $16.99. Ages 9 to 12. Reviewer: Jane Kurtz Goering — The Five Owls, January/February 2001 (Vol. 15 No. 3)
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