Middle school is a definite change from elementary. There are many challenges that have to be faced including navigating friendships, making new friends, betrayal, and secrets. Eileen Moskowitz-Palma covers these and more in this heart-warming story about the joys and pains of friends and family. Many will see themselves in the cast of characters are this book will take many parents down memory lane as they read it to and with their children. There are many lessons to learn from this book, and I hope that it will be a series. Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for the opportunity to review this book.

Such a cute book about friendship and learning to fit in. Bea and Maisy have been friends, forever but like most middle schoolers they drift apart. Maisy joins the popular group at school and Bea doesn't. During the summer the girls go to Camp Amelia where they are put into the same cabin. At camp Maisy has a hard time fitting in whereas Bea thrives. To survive the summer, Maisy proposes a pact - if Bea will help Maisy become popular at camp, Maisy will help Bea become popular with the M&Ms.
Many of the girls issues could have been resolved if the two friends just simply talked things out. But if they did that early the story would be boring and not worth reading. This is a good book for students in fourth grade and up. That can be a tricky time as children get older and maybe interests start to shift and different friendships start to form. While acknowledging the social fears of tweens, the author also shows young women grappling with real life family issues. Fun read told from dual viewpoints.

I tend to shy away from anything so focused on popularity and what seem like mean girls and this book has both. There are some serious issues mentioned like addiction so I definitely would not purchase for my K-4 library. I didn't connect with it at all and it left me with the same uneasy social portrayal feeling as Dork Diaries.

I couldn't complete this book. I could not connect with any of the characters because they were all so mean. All of the characters seemed to be duplicates of each other. They all have one second of clarity about choosing kindness and then spend everyone second being completely vicious. I have never stopped reading a book but this one broke me. I wish I could of made it to the end because I am sure there is a great resolve. This book is not for me but I am sure there is someone out there that would enjoy it.

The Popularity Pact: Camp Clique is a good story about friendships. I really liked that the camp was an athletic, competitive camp. It's a good story about girls finding confidence and renewing friendships that have gone sour. One of the issues that one of the girls in this dual POV story was dealing with is an issue I have little experience with. It made me want to do more research on the topic! I could relate to the loyalty the friends showed each other even after mistakes were made. All in all, a very sweet read!

Bea and Maisy , both 11, were best friends since preschool. However, that all changed when Bea returned home from camp the summer before sixth grade. Maisy ditched Bea without an explanation for the popular girls in their class. Bea, devastated and lonely, opted to eat lunch by herself in the library. The only time Bea didn’t feel invisible was when she was at camp with her friends. Their friendship bond was based on truth and unwavering support. When Maisy’s father sent her to that same camp, neither Bea nor her friends were happy to see her there. Away from the popularity group at school, Maisy now felt that same loneliness and invisibility that Bea experienced throughout the school year. Eventually, both girls agreed to a popularity pact in which Bea helped Maisy make friends at camp and Maisy in turn promised to help Bea become a member of her popular girls’ group at school for the upcoming 7th grade.

Besides the popularity and school cliques, the story also dealt with several other issues including addiction, parental dating and discord, the real meaning of friendship, forgiveness and acceptance. Since this was the first book in a series, the ending had an unresolved issue which will probably be resolved in the next story.

I think students in this age group will relate to this story, and it should be included in school libraries. I also think this story might act as a springboard for teacher led discussions related to the above mentioned issues in the story.

This book definitely is relevant and strikes a chord with both young girls and boys alike ! Children (and teenagers and adults!) often deal with the struggles of fitting in and feeling like you don’t belong, and dealing with ‘mean’ people. Good read :)

We’ve been trying to get my daughter into more middle grade novels and I knew just from the cover she would love this. It’s exciting to have her excited to read new books.