The Aristobrats by Jennifer Solow

Amazon.com:

It's all about the Attitude

Parker Bell knows the secret to beauty is pretty simple–wearing the right clothes isn't as important as how you feel in them. Popularity is like that too. It's all about attitude. You have to picture who you want to be and then just imagine that's who you already are.

This year Parker and her three best friends have made their way to the top of the populadder at Wallingford Academy. And they're ready to use their Aristobrat status to help spread positive vibes throughout the school. But when the girls are assigned to produce the seriously lame school webcast, their popularity plummets! Will this tragedy destroy the girls' status? Or their friendship? Or both?

The Aristobrats is about a group of girls that while high on the popularity scale aren't really what you would consider mean girls, not really, they really like their popularity but for the most part they are nice to other students which was refreshing!

The book was very current which was good and bad, I loved the idea of someone like Steve Jobs providing the school with all sort of current gadgets like giant screens and tablets and things that let you spy on classrooms making it an ultra-techy school. But at the same time there was so much insider lingo to the girls' group it sort of distracted from the actual story because I kept having to look up the words in the back or if there weren't listed in the Guide to Terms figure it out on my own. Yes, the lingo showed how close the girls were having almost their own language but it made it a bit harder for me, the reader.

I also thing telling the stories from each girl's perspective for say a whole chapter instead of for a bit here and there would have helped separate them more from each other and create a clearer personality for each girl. But if this is set to be a series, which I think it is, maybe the next book will be told for another girl's perspective?

I did really like the plot though, how the girls were assigned to write and film a school wide newshow with other classmates, and also the normal things 8th grade girls go through dealing with cliques and boys etc. Overall, I think this book might be especially enjoyed but Middle Grade/Junior High age girls!

The Aristobrats will be released on September 7th 2010
Genre: Young Adult
3/5 Stars
ARC picked up at BEA