Besties: Work It Out by Kayla Miller and Jeffrey Casino. Illustrated by Kristina Luu. 219 p. A Click series companion. Clarion/ HarperCollins Publishers, October, 2021. 9780358561914. (Review of finished copy borrowed from the public library.)
This spin-off of Ms. Miller's wildly popular Click series features bffs, Chanda and Beth. They want to earn some extra cash, Beth, so she can buy her mom a nice birthday gift and Chanda wants a cat. Their lemonade stand is a total bust and they are bummed. When Beth's older sister has to turn down a petsitting gig because she's too busy with sports and school, she offers the job to Beth and Chanda. They can't believe their luck. Not only is Ms. Langford's dog adorable, but she lives in a fancy house and owns closets full of fancy clothes, which the girls take turns trying on, taking photos and posting them to social media. Hm, not the wisest decision. This leads to their school mates (there are cameos of characters from the Click series) wanting to come over, which leads to an antique lamp getting broken, which leads to the girls needing more jobs to earn quick cash to pay for the lamp, which leads to... lots of friendship drama.
This was fun, if a bit over-the-top. Ms. Langford's blasé attitude about the girls' transgressions strained credulity. There really were no consequences for a huge invasion of privacy. The portrayal of Chanda's parents and family dynamics skewed a bit toward stereotyping. Tween readers won't notice.
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