In this installment, we follow Hayley as she finishes up seventh grade.
One of the things I liked best about this series was how relatable Hayley and her friends were. They were just average kids, and unlike the protagonists of many other books, they weren't particularly "special". Hayley did have a talent for baking cupcakes, but that point was central to the theme of the series. Now suddenly, Hayley was excelling two years above grade level in Spanish. And we knew that Artie could sing, but along the way, she turned into a natural performer of all kinds of stage talent, plus she was exceptionally artistic! And boy-next-door Marco became a brilliant photographer and videographer. That's all good and fine, but they all just became not quite so relatable as before. They're only in 7th grade, after all. They could have remained more relatable, if say, Marco showed an interest in photography, without automatically being incredibly talented at it.
As usual, the author works in some kind of angle to open young readers' minds. This time, volunteering makes an appearance. I like that the series seems to make a point of highlighting diversity and well-roundedness.
I also continued to be impressed with how well the author was able to capture the essence of being a teenager. Even though Hayley makes some bad decisions, I kind of felt I could understand why she made them, even though it was clear she knew what she ought to have done.
Surprisingly, Hayley showed a real lack of ambition, and at first I couldn't decide how I felt about her attitude. Was it a bad thing if she didn't want to pursue every potentially positive opportunity presented to her? After a while, I realized that I found Hayley's priorities remarkably reasonable. In a world where students are constantly over-scheduled, trying to maximize their commitments in order to pad their transcripts for college, it was refreshing that Hayley knew what she liked - baking cupcakes and helping her Gran at the Tea Room - and actually prioritized her commitments so that she wouldn't have to give up those interests. It's not like she was passing up opportunities out of laziness.
Anyway, overall, this book - and the whole series - is just a really fun read about middle school life. Seventh grade ends on a good note for Hayley. A lot of loose ends are tied up, and my only disappointment at the finish was not understanding why Gran was so unhappy about the poetry book Mr. Malik gave her.
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