[.ca] Bad Girls, Bad Girls, Whatcha Gonna Do? (ISBN 0689824742)

Courtesy of Teens Read Too:
The fourth book about the adventures of Bad Girls Mikey Elsinger and Margalo Epps, BAD GIRLS, BAD GIRLS, WHATCHA GONNA DO? happens over the course of Mikey and Margalo's ninth grade year. They've started high school, so, of course, things are going to be different! The two are rather surprised to find that people are asking them for advice, but, of course, between the two of them, there's always a plan. The difficulties they face include an unfair tennis coach, bullies, thieves, and, well, ninth grade. Being Mikey and Margalo, they always come up with a way to fix things. It doesn't matter if it's against the rules; injustices have got to be corrected! It is, however, surprising that they have so much help with what they do; in fact, there's almost an entire lunch table full of people putting their various talents to use helping Mikey and Margalo! Mikey and Margalo, despite the title of the book, do not seem to be particularly bad. In fact, they are almost too good to be realistic in the causes for which they choose to fight. They're fighting school bullies and trying to get the lines called fairly in tennis matches, not stealing lunch money or throwing spitballs at their teachers. However, even though they aren't the bad girls that the title suggests, Mikey and Margalo are fairly realistic and likeable characters. I vaguely remember reading a couple of the previous books in the series a few years ago, and Mikey and Margalo were a lot more amusing then. This book, while at times a fun read, also had times where it dragged on and on. This book would have been five stars, had it been a couple hundred pages shorter (it's over four-hundred pages long)! Reviewed by: Jocelyn Pearce