Book Review: Emily Posts

Katie February 2, 2024 0 Comments

Emily Posts is about a middle school girl named Emily who looks up to Emily Post and tries to use her life lessons in her own life.  To be honest, I’m not really sure what made me choose this book to review, and while it is geared towards kids it took me a bit to get through because Emily and her friends can be absolutely insufferable at times.  Yet, somehow, representation matters and I was pleased to see that her younger soon to be step brother’s best friend was a wheelchair user that had cerebral palsy (and was also super sneaky!)

Emily works on a podcast at school, but when a partnership comes from a large company with the school it seems that the climate march Emily is concerned about and wants to publicize gets shut down by her principal.  In order to distract her, they change the visit of a famous actress who was coming to the school so Emily won’t try and get her friends to skip school and attend the march.

Meanwhile, there’s also a new girl in school and Emily is quite a bit jealous and not so great to her.

Overall, brought me right back to middle school and I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not.  But it does have some good lessons about working together, standing up for what you believe in and perhaps how to go about getting what you want in the right ways so you won’t get in a lot of trouble with, well, everyone.

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review, I was not otherwise compensated.

Middle school podcast advice columnist + social media influencer wannabe Emily Laurence takes on the principal at her school to stand up for a climate march, in this fun, school-based drama for ages 10 and up. For fans of Gordon Korman and Susin Nielsen.

Emily is the ringleader for her school podcast, Cedarview Speaks — Sponsored by CoastFresh! But her plans for middle-school fame and social media influence are derailed when Amelie joins her eighth-grade class. The new arrival has a seemingly endless supply of confidence and a gift for leading people. Or leading them astray, as far as Emily’s concerned.

Emily puts her old-fashioned sense of etiquette into practice. Rather than confronting Amelie, she focuses her energy on creating a podcast story about an upcoming climate march. But her story is censored by the school principal. When she protests, Emily gets cut from the podcast crew . . . and Amelie takes her place!

Can Emily use her influence to spread the news of the climate march, reclaim her place on the podcast team and expose the flaws of CoastFresh? Can she balance her impeccable manners with twenty-first century activism? And how will she ever manage to work alongside Amelie?

With a light touch and plenty of humor, Emily Posts explores issues of social media, influence, corporate sponsorship . . . and the fraught waters of middle-school friendship.