Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover

I had heard a lot about Ally Carter's Gallagher Girls series, and this year I bought a copy of each for my classroom library. There was a Scholastic special with Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover, so I bought multiple copies to have for a book club choice. When I book talked it to my 7th graders this fall, I had imagined that it would be an all girls book club. Nonetheless, the spy aspect appealed to the boys as well. There was so much interest, that I did not end up reading the other choice with some of the students and consolidated what would have been two groups.

Though there were some gaps because we read the third book in the series without having read the first two, Carter did a good job in writing it so it could be read as a stand alone novel; although, I really want to go back and read the first two in order to get more of the back story.

The main character Cammie and her roommates go to a special spy school. Even though outsiders think it is a traditional school for girls - prim and proper, it is actually preparing them to advance to higher levels of espionage. It was fascinating to imagine what the school was like based on the description in the book.

This school year is complicated because right before school started when she was visiting one of her best friends/roommates, Macey, the two along with another boy are attacked. Macey's dad is running to be vice president, and after the occurrence, the girls and school know that they will need to take extra measures of safety to keep Macey and the school's identity safe.

Cammie, along with the other two roommates, can't seem to keep themselves out of trouble, as they want to personally have a hand in investigating and keeping Macey safe. Throughout the book they try to unravel just who tried to get to Macey at the start of the book and how they can prevent something similar from happening, but Carter has many twists and turns in mind as the details of the evening are unveiled bit by bit.

My students have not completed the book yet, so I had to make sure to take careful notes of where they were at to not give away any of the exciting events leading up to finally discovering the full story of what happened. So far, the book has been a hit with both the boys and the girls in the group! There has been plenty lively discussions. One of my sixth grade girls has also been reading through the series and is loving it.