We are Party People is a story about a young girl whose parents own a party planning business. Her parents are extremely outgoing while she tends to be on the shy/quiet side. Due to unforseen turn of events she has to help her dad with the family business. This pushes her out of her comfort zone. However in the end, she realizes she's more like her parents than she realized.

Margolis created a character that shows kids its OK to be yourself and at the same time it's OK to try new things.

This will post on my blog on 2 October 2017.

E ARC From Netgalley.com

Pixie's parents run the local party business, We Are Party People, and also give toddler classes on music from their storefront in the mall. Her mom and dad dress up as everything from John Lennon to Luella the Mermaid to the Crazy Chicken. When Pixie's estranged grandmother develops increasingly bad problems with dementia, Pixie's mother goes to stay with her and get her resettled. This means that a lot of the party business needs Pixie's help. This is a lot to ask, since she is trying to make her way through middle school with the help of longtime friend Lola and newcomer Sophie. Pixie suffers from shyness and some social anxiety, so when Sophie decides to run for class president and wants her help, and her father wants her to sing at birthday parties, her anxiety escalates, especially since she is also meeting her mother. She is impressed with how well Sophie can go up to other students and introduce herself, and is a bit jealous of her ability to talk to boys. Sophie gives a great speech for the school election, and thinks that being the mermaid at a birthday party would be a lot of fun. Since Pixie doesn't want to do that, Sophie is recruited, but has second thoughts when mean girl and election opponent Jenna is at the party! Will Pixie be able to harness her inner resources to save the day?
Strengths: This is what we need in middle grade novels. Some realistic friend and family drama, a little crush, a fun setting in which a middle grade character DOES something, and a happy ending. Confetti on the cover. I love Margolis' other books, such as If I Were You, and I can't wait to share this title with my readers. This would also be perfect for elementary students who want to read about older students.
Weaknesses: The character development could have been a bit better. Pixie is anxious and anxious and anxious... and then she's not. There were some circumstances that made this make a little more sense, but I wished she had analyzes Sophie's behavior a little more and tried it out with varying degrees of success before finding out what worked for her.
What I really think: First of all, I want to name my next dog Pixie! I was a little put off by Pixie's anxiety at first, but was glad to see her be able to overcome it. Honestly, I think the way she felt was pretty much how 95% of middle school girls feel, and I'm including the teachers and librarians in this group! People like Jenna and Sophie are outliers.