Mixed Messages

Mixed Messages
by Tina Wells
Mackenzie Blue, book four

Mackenzie Blue and her crew are plugged in!

Zee and her band, The Beans, are getting ready for their biggest show yet! Everyone's talking about it online at Bluetopia—the coolest social-networking site ever.

Top three reasons that Bluetopia is the best:

*I can keep all my thoughts safe in a private blog, and I won't have to worry about anyone stealing my diary (finally)!

*The Beans have a huge show coming up, and we can make sure everyone knows about it!

*Jasper (my best guy friend) is in the spotlight for creating the site. He's so talented—he deserves it.
(description from Amazon.com)

This series really is a lot of fun. I love easy it is to read, how there are little pictures of the characters breaking up the story, and the great little messages that are worked into the story without being at all preachy.

Zee is still one of my favorite middle grade characters. She is very real. She's uber creative and fun, but also gets wrapped up in real-life worries and makes mistakes. She's who I wanted to be in middle school - not afraid to do my own thing, but still fun and totally approachable. Zee rocks!

I love the budding romance in this book. I don't want to spoil it for anyone that might check the series out, but things that have been building for awhile might finally come to fruition soon!! :)

I love that Zee balances her friendships so well. She has to work at it, but that only makes her that much more of a positive role model to middle grade readers out there.

The whole addition of the Facebook like site, "Bluetopia" in this book seems very timely and fresh. It's also a really great way to introduce the need for internet safety on social networking sites without lecturing tween readers.

Well done.