This was such an adorable read! The cover itself is so so cute. It was a well written book that you should get!

Fifth-grader Annie Brown knows her passion. She loves to come up with helpful inventions and write television commercials about them. She calls herself a wrinventor. There are the Smell Smashers, small air fresheners you can wear as jewelry for stinky places like the school cafeteria or the Hue Guru, which can help you pick the perfect color of paint for any room. And Annie has commercials in mind for them all. So when Annie finds out that a local kids webshow is starting up and looking for kids to star as announcers, she knows that this is her chance. 

The problem is that her almost-always best friend Savannah is a natural performer. And a natural athlete. And a natural beauty. Savannah is just good at everything without even trying hard, and Annie sometimes has trouble feeling like she means as much to her almost-always best friend as her almost-always best friend means to her. And then when Savannah comes into Annie's audition and steals the director's attention, Annie has even more trouble being an almost-always best friend. 

It's not easy for Annie to find her place in the sun, but as wrinventor, she finds a way, even makes a way, for herself and figures out how to be a good friend despite all the colorful feelings she has about the rules of friendship that come with growing up. 

Annie B., Made for TV is a charming middle grade debut for picture book author Amy Dixon. With colorful characters battling real relationship issues and the challenging emotions of growing up, Annie B. creates a world of smart, talented kids who learn to be each other's cheerleaders in this adorable, fun story of friendship and forgiveness. This is a great edition to any middle grader's summer reading list. 



Galleys for Annie B., Made for TV were provided by Running Press Kids through NetGalley, with many thanks.

Annie Brown is an 11-year-old who always seems to come in second to her best friend, Savannah. Savannah seems unable to do any wrong: she wins the big awards at school, she's the MVP of the school track team, and she's a straight-A student. Savannah tries to be a supportive best friend, and when a local web show called The Cat's Meow holds auditions, Savannah just knows that Annie has to try out! After all, no one comes up with wacky "As Seen on TV"-type products like she does! Annie's own dad calls them her "wrinventions", and they include things like Apology Armor (extra padding on those knees). But Annie freezes at the audition... and Savannah lands the role of announcer, which causes a rift in their friendship - even when Annie is brought on as a show writer. Can Annie outfit herself in some Apology Armor and patch things up with Savannah?

This is one of those middle grade novels that so many readers will understand! Who hasn't felt jealous of a good friend, especially if they seem to have it all? Who hasn't felt the disappointment of missing out on something like being cast for a school play, or making a sports team? Amy Dixon captures realistic scenarios and real feelings in the form of a spunky, funny protagonist who wants to be Lucy, but maybe is a little more Ethel. Annie B. Made for TV reminds me of Sarvenaz Tash's Belle of the Ball, a great story from the anthology The Radical Element. It's not always about being the one in the spotlight, but about knowing your strengths and how to work them. This one's a fun, smart read for middle graders, and is filled with black and white line drawings of Annie's best "wrinventions".

This was a fun, fast paced story about friendship and family. I think the characters were well developed pretty early on and it was fun to read about Annie wanting to be a ad writer. I liked her jingles! A little competition between her and her best bus Savannah adds a little does of tension to the story, just enough to keep the kiddos reading! Fun, quick read for grades 3-7.

A BIG Thank You to NetGalley for providing me an advanced reader’s copy of “Annie B., Made for TV” by Amy Dixon in exchange for my honest review.

I liked this book. True, is it not a game changer of any sort, but it is a charming middle grade story of friendship, and shows how the main character, Annie reacts when her friendship with her best friend Savannah starts sinking and how she tries to mend it.

I thought this book touched on an interesting subject on how we feel and respond to our friends when we are faced with certain situations. We all have close friends whom we look up to and aspire to be like. Sometimes, when we see them be successful in things that we fail to be successful at, it make us angry or jealous at them, rather than be supportive. I liked how the story touched on this idea and showed how Annie reacted to the circumstances when she saw Savannah stealing her spotlight. I know a lot of us have had best friends whom we are not close with as time goes on, so reading books like these reminds me that we should really cherish the people who are close in our lives that we consider as good friends and family, and not let emotions like jealousy get in the way. After all, like how the author mentions in the story:

“Good friends are like stars. You can’t always see them, but you know they’re always there.”

The only part that I slightly got tired of was reading all the sales ads that Annie comes up throughout the book. At first, it was fun to read these quirky advertisement ideas that she creates, but after a while, it just got monotonous, and I just wanted to focus on the story. It would have been fun if the way each advertisement sounded was different from one another, but they were all portrayed in the same manner, and at times seemed like unnecessary fillers added to the book.

The style of writing is simple and the pacing is easy to follow. Overall, this was a very cute book that a middle grader would enjoy. However, as much as I liked it, I am giving it only 3 stars as I feel like the characters were not that memorable, and more often than not, I did get tired of the “advertisements” ideas.