I won this book through the Goodreads First-Reads program.

[b:The Girlz of Glastanberry] has a message that is incredibly difficult to dislike. [a:Garen S. Wolff|5012616|Garen S. Wolff|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1343233819p2/5012616.jpg] has set up a story, or well, a series of stories, that are rife with the message that girls should not allow their gender to control their ambitions. I can't say anything negative about that message - I do believe that women should strive to achieve whatever they wish to achieve - and I can't say anything negative about the multicultural nature of the book either. It's cool to see characters from all walks of life in the book, and it offers a look at different subcultures that I've not seen explored before. In particular, Fei in the breakdancing competition was pretty darn cool.

Something that I fond particularly refreshing in this book was the fact that the girls didn't always get what they wanted. The competitions were not simple wish-fulfillment, but rather realistic in what outcomes occurred. Just because you lose doesn't mean that you're a failure - there are plenty of opportunities that come out of just putting yourself out there. Furthermore, the relationships that the kids had with their parents were also pretty realistic. I think that [a:Garen S. Wolff|5012616|Garen S. Wolff|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1343233819p2/5012616.jpg] captured the familial love and how it can be offset by different ambitions without lessening. Again, I found Fei to be an excellent example of this. Lillian also was a particularly good example of the instability that can happen in family situations but not lessen them. Very cool stuff.

The problems that I had with this book were threefold.

First, I found the amount of character perspectives a bit jarring. Each chapter focused on a different girl getting her acceptance letter to Galstanberry and how she reacted to it. While this is a great set up for the overall book series, it can be a bit jarring for the reader. Keeping track not only of the protagonists who go to the school, but also their parents, relatives, and friends is a bit much. The relationships can be hard to remember, and as each character is quite fully developed... well, these interactions are important. If the series continues and each book tends to take a more narrow focus this problem will be resolved.

Secondly, I found some of the girls behavior pretty abominable. This problem is mine rather than a problem of the book or the writer. I understand that teens and tweens do act rather much like the characters in the book... so, it's well done. The author herself works with kids these age, so she certainly knows what she's doing! I can't really criticize, this is just personal opinion here.

My third trouble with the book was the foreign language within it. While I had no trouble with the inclusion of the foreign phrases, I found the translations of them a bit jarring. I think it might be better to include a glossary at the back of the book, or maybe just a translation at the beginning of each chapter rather than the footnotes for each phrase. The repetition of ones already translated bothered me a little as well. I'm not certain how others have taken to the translation - I certainly wouldn't remove the foreign sentences from the book.

Overall, I quite liked the message of the book and the portrayal of the characters within. I just didn't quite find the book to my taste. Nevertheless, I do believe I will be passing it on to my niece when she's old enough to enjoy it. :) ( )