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Description
Gigi Shin is not a nerd (Gigi Shin, Book 1)This first book in a sparkling middle grade series "reminiscent of Ann M. Martin's Baby Sitters Club books" (Kirkus Reviews) follows a young Korean American girl who starts a business with her best friends to support her artistic dreams. Jiyoung "Gigi" Shin loves to create, from her zany outfits to self executed haircuts. She dreams of becoming an artist and doodles every chance she gets at school instead of taking notes, in choir instead of singing,
This first book in a sparkling middle grade series "reminiscent of Ann M. Martin's Baby-Sitters Club books" (Kirkus Reviews) follows a young Korean American girl who starts a business with her best friends to support her artistic dreams.Jiyoung "Gigi" Shin loves to create, from her zany outfits to self-executed haircuts. She dreams of becoming an artist and doodles every chance she gets--at school instead of taking notes, in choir instead of singing, and at home instead of homework. Art is her way of escaping her boring life in suburban Middle of Nowhere, Texas. Unfortunately, her working class, immigrant parents want her to focus on her studies and pursue something more "practical." Gigi only really feels like herself in art class and at lunch with her best friends, Carolina and Zeina.
When Gigi learns about an elite art camp on the east coast, she's determined to go. But she knows her parents won't let her, much less pay for it. After overhearing her little brother Tommy complain about how hard math is and how his teacher goes too fast for him, Gigi has a brilliant idea: forming a tutoring club with her friends to make enough money for the art camp.
With Carolina, Zeina, and Carolina's friend, Emma, the girls go all in, each with a reason for wanting the business to succeed. But the first few sessions with their classmates are a little chaotic, and Gigi wonders if she will end up sacrificing more than she bargained for to achieve her dreams.
Lee, Lyla
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4.1 ★★★★★
Based on 26 reviews
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Product Reviews
★★★★★ 5
Brilliant
Format: Hardcover
The First State of Being is a brilliant, highly readable middle grade book from the QUEEN of character-driven middle grade literature. This expansive sci-fi feels at once introspective and cinematic, leaping off the page like something made for a movie. This book will help young people and all readers reflect on our past and future as a human community, especially in terms of health advances, animal extinction, and the potential for technological development. It also highlights the love and fight in a mother and the need to view life through a positive lens by focusing most on the present, not our past or future.
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Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2025
★★★★★ 5
Which Came First?
Format: Hardcover
Of course this won the Newberry award. From the first word, it reminded me of Donna Barba Higuera's The Last Cuentista. A plot so different and imaginative that you wonder how anyone could have thought of it and then carried it out. It's a story of a young boy who is trying to take care of the single mother who seems unable to take care of the family, through no fault of her own. It's a sci-fi fantasy. And it's a story of taking care of each other. At the totally satisfying end I found myself wondering about the chicken and the egg. Thinking I may have to read this one again to see if I can figure it out.
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Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2025
★★★★★ 5
Perfect Choice
Format: Hardcover
Excellent YA / SCI-FI novel. Pretty well captures the spirit of a 12-year-old boy.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 25, 2025
★★★★★ 4
Well-written, twisty novel for middle school children
Format: Kindle
This is Kelly’s second Newbery Medal, the first being for *Hello, Universe* in 2018. Both are well-written novels for middle-grade children and should have a lot of appeal for that age.
It's the year 1999, early fall, an apartment complex in Delaware. 12-year-old Michael is worried that the Y2K bug will cause the collapse of civilization on January 1, 2000. He has been stealing cans of food to create an emergency stash under his bed. He has started a new school, and his only friends are the apartment complex maintenance man and his high-school-age after-school babysitter, Gibby. Michael’s father is dead, and his mother works long hours to make ends meet.
One day a strange kid shows up in the complex, dressed in unusual clothing and asking odd questions like, “What year is this?” It doesn’t take an experienced science fiction reader to suspect that this kid, Ridge, is from the future. He is interested in observing late 20th Century American culture. But he also wants Michael and Gibby to help him figure out how to get back to the future without interfering with the past and thus changing his own timeline. The 1999 part of the story is interspersed with notes about the future and the panicked dialog of Ridge’s family as they try to investigate what happened to him.
It probably doesn’t have many new ideas for adult readers, but it will be surprising and exciting for readers ages 12 and up
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Reviewed in the United States on September 9, 2025
★★★★★ 5
MUST READ!
Format: Hardcover
The First State of Being is set in 1999 during the uncertainty of Y2k. Michael Rosario doesn't have any friends, unless you count Mr. Mosley, the maintenance man in his apartment building, and his babysitter Gibby. Michael worries a lot about the future, his mom, and just about everything else. So when a mysterious teenager (Ridge) shows up near his apartment complex one day, and says he's from the future, Michael is determined to find out what's to become of the world when the year 2000 is here. Will Ridge be able to calm Michael's fears?
Fans of A Rover's Story by Jasmine Warga will love this story about family, friendship, time travel, and facing one's fears. Erin Entrada Kelly's voice makes this novel a must read. It's amazing!
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Reviewed in the United States on April 1, 2024