Turn It Up!

October 15, 2017
Relationship drama among girls dominates this lightweight offering. Lidia and Sydney, Florida private school sophomores and longtime best friends, are co-captains of the school's struggling girls' a cappella group, the Nightingales. Unfortunately, the ambitions they harbor for its triumphant re-emergence are threatened after Lidia spots the boy she has a crush on kissing blonde, white, curly-haired Sydney. Lidia is also struggling to balance the time demands of singing with her newfound--and secret--passion for dance. Catty queen bees waiting to capitalize on Lidia and Sydney's conflict, a rivalry with the school's high-profile male a cappella group, a new Latina singer with stage fright, and an attractive mystery boy on the bus all add to the chaos. Ethnic diversity is conveyed primarily through surnames, with no cultural texture to round the characters out. However, character development is quite weak across the board, with a few portrayals--particularly of Lidia's Japanese-American family and Indian-American Nightingales member Donna Patel--feeling cartoonish. Also troubling, the lead male characters are portrayed as unfailingly charming, sincere, caring, confident, and emotionally perceptive, while interactions among girls are marked by back-stabbing, jealousy, dishonesty, self-doubt, and public meltdowns. Although there is lip service to sisterhood, this novel plays right into many of the most insidious negative stereotypes of teenage girls. (Fiction. 12-18)

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October 23, 2017
Sophomores Lidia Sato, Sydney Marino, and Julianna Ramirez attend the private Bradley Academy in Florida where the Nightingales, the school’s female a cappella group, may have to disband due to a shortage of talented singers. An unexpected kiss from Griffin Mancini, a popular lead singer with the male Kingfishers a cappella group, threatens to ruin the friendship between Nightingales co-captains Lidia and Sydney, as well as the Nightingales’ comeback. Meanwhile, new student and songwriter Julianna doubts her singing ability after not making the Tonal Teens group at her old high school. Lidia and Sydney’s misunderstanding, group infighting, and Julianna’s lack of confidence jeopardize the Nightingales’ chances of bringing home a trophy from the upcoming Turn It Up competition. Although the three protagonists are talented and hardworking, Calonita (the Fairy Tale Reform School series) tends to emphasize their insecurities and immaturities for the sake of drama, and their decidedly first-world problems may not win them much sympathy. A rushed ending ties up the story’s loose ends at warp speed. Ages 12–up. Agent: Dan Mandel, Sanford J. Greenburger Associates.

December 1, 2017

Gr 5-8-A mash-up of Pitch Perfect and Glee for the middle school crowd. Lidia and Sydney are best friends and cocaptains of the Nightingales, their school's all-girl a cappella group. Rumored to be under a curse, the team has not been doing well the last few years, but the members are determined to turn things around. When Lidia catches Sydney kissing Griffin, the guy she's been crushing on for years, their friendship and the team start to fall apart. Auditions go badly and Lidia quits. She focuses on her love of dancing and meets a cute boy on the bus who shares her love of Sailor Moon and nonpareil chocolates. When the pranks and competition between the Nightingales and the school's all-boy a cappella group, the Kingfishers, ends in disaster at the school's open house, Lidia and Sydney come up with a plan to fix the group and their friendship. Everything gets resolved neatly. The narrative is told in the voices of Sydney, Lidia, and Julianna, a new member of the group who has debilitating stage fright. Each of the protagonists is relatable and their problems are easily worked out. The character development is at surface level, and the secondary characters are stereotypical-down to the girl who can only sing with a puppet on her hand-but that does not detract from what is a quick, light read. VERDICT Purchase for collections where a cappella and Pitch Perfect are popular.-Kefira Phillipe, Nichols Middle School, Evanston, IL

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2017
Grades 7-10 How much more can go wrong with the a cappella Nightingales group? Audition turnout is way too low; the new girl with the best voice has serious stage fright; infighting is at a peak; and, worst of all, cocaptains Lidia and Sydney have a major falling out over a boy they both like. Get ready for high-pitched drama and a major off-key prelude before the Nightingales pull themselves together. Calonita offers an insightful and angst-ridden journey into the world of high-schoolers' stress, friendships, competitiveness, and romance, punctuated with screwball comedy moments as the boys and girls a cappella groups try to prank each other. Sydney and Lidia come across as especially realistic and sympathetic sophomores as they try to rescue their relationship and be their better selves. How could six years of best friendship go up in flames so fast? Any sophomore knows that can happen, of course, and how it can shake up emotional security. Performance-minded teens will especially relate to this tender, musically minded romp.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)