By Ali Benjamin

Overview: This was such a cute story! Paulie Fink’s adventures are absolutely hilarious and so fun to read about. Kids eight and up will love it. Advanced younger readers might also be interested.

What’s it about? Caitlyn Breen is already not excited to be moving to a new school, but is even less excited when she discovers that her new “school” has a seventh grade consisting of ten kids, all who completely idolize some kid names “Paulie Fink” who disappeared over the summer. They miss him so much, in fact, that they decide to hold a competition to discover who will take Paulie Fink’s place as the class clown.

My thoughts: The plot was interesting and kept me hooked, although I feel like the whole competition thing was a little weird, because what were they expected to once they became the next great Paulie Fink? What kinds of kids would react to losing a friend by holding a competition to see who would replace them? The competition was fun to read about, though. I also loved the dynamic between Caitlyn and her new classmates. It was definitely relatable to read about Caitlyn’s battle with herself, trying to figure out how to be “nice” or “mean” or what those words are even supposed to mean.