This was not a good book. The dialogue was stilted in parts, the main character was AWFUL, and I struggled to care enough to keep reading. I did finish it, but the ending was also a disappointment.

When I started reading this I was already a big fan of DiCamillo and have read many of her books. The one book that I must having been living under a rock to not here about, was Raymie Nightengale,
which is where you first meet Louisiana.
I wondered if not having read
that book would have any affect on reading this. Not to worry if you've been under a rock somewhere and didn't read Raymie Nightengale.
This book stands independently. You don't feel as if you've missed a whole chunk of the story.
This book is heartwarming and tells Louisiana's tale in the first person. You'll come to love Louisiana and love DiCamillo's latest book.

Just really tough to like the main character. There was nothing redeeming about her throughout most of the book. A lot of people have divorced parents who don't treat people the way she treated people.

I had the opportunity to read a NetGalley digital ARC of this middle grade fiction book in exchange for a review. Just in time for the holiday season, this book is a clever, modern twist on the Charles Dickens classic, A Christmas Carol. And just like the original story, this one has lessons on kindness for everyone.
Eighth grader, Ellie Charles, is the most popular, powerful girl at her middle school. Everyone is afraid of her and wants to be her friend. She’s just as mean as she can possibly be, as the students are preparing for their holiday dance. But a nasty fall off of a ladder results in a hit to the head that takes her on an important journey – to her past, her present, and her future.
The trip to the past allows readers to see the painful events in Ellie’s life that led to her decision to become mean and popular. The trip to the present allows Ellie to see how her behavior affects those around her. And the trip to the future allows her to see what her high school experience will be. If readers are familiar with A Christmas Carol, it will definitely inspire comparisons between Ellie and Ebenezer Scrooge. And the ghost that serves as Ellie’s tour guide is her best friend from earlier days, Marley.

Interest Level: 5-8

Do you think it would be awesome to be the most popular girl in your middle school? Would you love to have all the girls want to be your friend? Ellie Charles is this girl and she plays her role as mean girl perfectly. Ellie can have any friends that she wants and she can make them do her bidding. The worse she makes people feel, the better she feels. She loves her life as the reigning queen of Lincoln Height Middle School, or at least she though she did until the accident. It is the day of the Winter Dance and she has made sure that her dance committee has everything amazing so this is the best dance in the history of dances, and she has been ruthless to achieve this. What she doesn't expect is to have an accident that causes her "friends" to think that she is dead. Even Ellie thinks that she is dead when she is standing and looking at lifeless body on the gym floor. She is watching the whole scene unfold but no one can she her "ghost". She is confused when a girl in black begins talking to her and sweeps her away to her past. She goes back to when she was eight-years-old and her father left her and her mom. This was a very hard time for Ellie but at least she has her best friend, Marley. Fast forward to when Ellie is eleven and the mean girls who run the school make fun of her and she is devastated. She will do whatever it takes to never feel that way again, even if it means jeopardizing her best friend. Finally, Ellie is taken to the future to see her senior prom. Ellie is beginning to realize that her life is not as great as she thinks it is. Does any of this make a difference in Ellie's life? Is her need to be a mean girl greater than doing what she knows is right? If Ellie does realize that she wants to turn her life around, are the injuries to her physical body too bad to be saved? Read this incredible coming-of-age story about friendship, loss, and love. Don't miss it!!

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I wanted to read this book because it's from the perspective of the mean girl -- a perspective that I think is important to understand if we're to combat bullying. But truthfully, I found the protagonist so unlikeable, so wholeheartedly committed to nastiness, that I just couldn't relate. This book will take careful thinking about, when I try to match it to a reader.

Nice twist on A Christmas Story. A good book to recommend to tweens as it shows the consequences of bullying.

With a riff off of A Christmas Carol, Margolis delves into the world of mean girls and the power of bullying. Ellie Charles, perfect in every way and at the pinnacle of her 8th-grade power, gets an outsider's view of her own cruelty after falling from a ladder in the school gym and being knocked out cold. She's a nasty piece of work, but readers slowly see her full story: the misery of her parents' painful divorce, the gnawing jealousy toward a best friend with a loving family, the humiliation of peers' pity, and the ongoing hurt of an absent dad.

As a middle-grade tale of high drama, this book entertains. As an exploration of the corrupted power wielded by bullies, the book lays down both heavy-handed lessons and flimsy excuses. Ellie may feel like a changed person in the end, but readers might wonder about the depth and sincerity of her transformation. The process is far from gradual, and the ultimate catalyst for her change of heart is suspiciously superficial and in keeping with her mean-girl motivations.

This is a cute story of an obnoxious, bullying teen who goes on through 3 transformations a la A Christmas Carol. Although highly relatable to middle schoolers, I doubt that anyone is truly this awful at age 13. (I could be wrong) Nod to Easter eggs from the original book.
I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.