But I guess my main reading appreciation challenges with this particular story, with Dear Pen Pal and, to be fair, with the entire The Mother-Daughter Book Club series so far, are for all intents and purposes that the plot lines do seem to simply and mostly move and meander from one potential and often standardly overused issue of young adult, of school-time concern and disaster to another, always framed with and by classic and conventional bully and bullying worries.

I actually finished Dear Pen Pal, the third instalment of Heather Vogel Frederick's The Mother-Daughter Book Club series (and where the club is discussing Jean Webster and especially her novels Daddy Longlegs and its sequel Dear Enemy) a couple of years ago, and then promptly forgot to review it (perhaps because while definitely to a small extent enjoyable, the novel is also and once more rather too stereotypical in many ways, with especially Lily Wong again being presented as a very intensely one-dimensional stock and cardboard like eponymous vegan 'activist' character, although I do have to admit that she does become just a trifle more developed, nuanced and human by the end of Dear Pen Pal). In this third book in the beloved Mother-Daughter Book Club series, the girls learn that as long as they have one another - and a good book - they're ready for whatever eighth grade has in store! There's plenty to write to their new friends about, from a prank-filled slumber party to a not-so-secret puppy - and even a surprise fi rst kiss. Inspired by Jess's unexpected opportunity, the book club decides to read Jean Webster's classic Daddy-Long-Legs, and there's an added twist this year when they become pen pals with the girls in a book club in Wyoming. Meanwhile Megan's grandmother comes for a long visit and turns everything in the Wong household upside down Emma crusades against her middle school's new uniforms and Cassidy fi nds out there's a big change ahead for her family. For the mother-daughter book club, everything changes in eighth grade.Ĭould the book club break up? When Jess is offered an anonymous scholarship to a prestigious boarding school, she's not sure that leaving home - and her friends - is what she wants to do.

Mother daughter book club dear pen pal