ALA Booklist (Thu May 01 00:00:00 CDT 2014)

Twelve-year-old Julia is looking forward to spending her summer playing with her best friend, Taylor, and nursing a crush on her neighbor Peter. But when a new girl, Alyssa, moves in across the street, suddenly Taylor doesn't want to be friends anymore. For a while, Julia tries to fit in with Alyssa and Taylor, even learning their complicated handball game, but Alyssa and Taylor get meaner and meaner, calling Julia names, teasing her for being nervous about grown-up TV shows, and calling her house so often her mother unplugs the phone. Luckily, Julia's stalwart and loving parents, along with a handful of true friends, help her develop the confidence to be happy with herself. This quietly empowering story from the author of The Best Night of Your (Pathetic) Life (2013) is a refreshingly honest take on bullying. Julia is a flawed but earnest girl, and she learns how to deal with mean girls at her own pace and with cheer-worthy dignity. Readers searching for something similar to the books of Beverly Cleary or Judy Blume should look no further.

Horn Book

Twelve-year-old Julia expects to spend summer vacation with her best friend Taylor, but a new neighbor changes everything and Julia faces some tough decisions. Altebrando explores several touchstones of adolescence, from first crushes and friendships growing apart to the parent-child struggle and finding one's place in the world. Readers will easily relate to this coming-of-age story and its emotionally charged characters.

Kirkus Reviews

As soon as new neighbor Alyssa shows up, Taylor is mesmerized, leaving best friend Julia feeling threatened. Immediately after 12-year-old Julia has bemoaned the boredom of hanging around her swimming pool with Taylor all summer, Alyssa enters the scene. Alyssa makes an unwelcome comment about Julia's unicorn-themed T-shirt, so Julia makes fun of Russia, the ball game Alyssa has begun to teach Taylor. Thus begins an escalating conflict, fueled mostly by Alyssa's cruelty and Taylor's complicity, which peaks with Alyssa's challenge to Julia to a one-on-one Russia tournament. Julia's overbearing but "often right" mother quickly arranges for Julia to spend two weeks at music camp, where Julia partially recovers her sense of self. Before the final Russia showdown—postponed once by the emergence of 17-year cicadas—readers learn about less-than-cool Wendy, loyal to Julia but dandruff-blighted; Julia's crush on her neighbor Peter; Julia's first bra; and why Julia's dream bedroom has been temporarily put on hold. The novel's underlying tone of superiority, supported by the implicit assurance that life gets better for people who are "passionate about stuff," is confirmed in the ending acknowledgments: "And an extra special thanks to the two girls who made my life on Albourne Avenue so miserable. Victory is mine." Despite the evergreen theme, Julia's whining is more likely to turn readers off than help them relate to her. (Fiction. 9-11)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Altebrando (The Best Night of Your Life) makes a confident detour into middle-grade with this pensive summer-of-change story. Her 12-year-old old heroine, Julia, isn-t quite so confident: a new girl, Alyssa, has moved onto Darcy Lane, and her arrival drives an immediate wedge between Julia and best friend Taylor. Sniping comments are traded, feelings are hurt, pranks are deployed, and crushes on boys are wielded as weapons, all building to a faceoff between Julia and Alyssa in a competitive ball-bouncing game called Russia (playing instructions are included). Altebrando brings rich, realistic depth to all of her characters, including Julia-s very-in-love parents-their interactions with Julia are easily as important to the story as Julia-s strained friendships. The author provides just enough glimpses into Taylor and Alyssa-s home lives to generate a bit of empathy for them (even when they-re being truly cruel to Julia), without letting them off the hook-and Julia isn-t blameless either. It-s a smart, sensitive portrait of an age when change is in the air, for better or worse. Ages 8-12. Agent: David Dunton, Harvey Klinger. (May)

School Library Journal (Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 CST 2014)

Gr 5-7 Several battles are being waged on Darcy Lane this summer, all of which involve Julia Richards, a supersmart 12-year-old with a passion for reading and the clarinet. She persistently challenges her kind, but protective, parents for a bra, a cell phone, and a less babyish bedroom. She fiercely competes with new-girl-on-the-block Alyssa for the attention of maybe-best-friend Taylor. And she struggles mightily to make sense of who she is and who she might be. (On considering the unicorns and dolls that adorn her room: "I wanted to get rid of everything. The problem was this: I had nothing to put in its place.") Altebrando's clear, intelligent writing captures the sweet details that comprise Julia's everyday life: a fresh coat of paint for her bedroom, a brilliant band-camp concert, a slice of birthday cake shared compatibly with the boy next door. While the book's setting is never explicated, references to a historic cicada swarm plus talk of the "island," the "city," and the "ferry" likely place the story in 2013 and on Staten Island, the author's hometown. Frequent use of the cicada as a marker for nature and time ("I tried to think ahead, another seventeen years, to imagine what things would be like when the cicadas come back") feels a bit forced and may confuse readers unfamiliar with the phenomenon, but this is a slight misstep in an otherwise charming and authentic first purchase. Susan Wengler, Saint Dominic Academy, Jersey City, NJ

Voice of Youth Advocates

It is summer.áJulia and her best friend Taylor are busy playing "millionaire," after having swum and played the day away. áThe only worry anyone on their whole block seems to have is the impending infestation of cicadas. áNew neighbors will be moving into the house across the street, so at least there is something exciting to look forward to. áWhen the new neighbors arrive, however, a girl named Alyssa moves in. áShe has more interesting games to play, turns her nose up at Julia, and begins to steal her best friend. áJulia feels torn from Taylor; sometimes needs her mom and sometimes wants nothing to do with her; and wonders if she is more than friends with the boy next door, Peter, in this summer of unexpected change.Realistically portraying the angst tweens go through as friends move on, peers become more important, and things you once loved (like unicorns) are seen as "babyish," The Battle of Darcy Lane will appeal to girls starting to outgrow childhood. áThat being said, the setting and situations created seem a bit oversimplified or part of an earlier decade where kids sat around with no electronics, two-parent households were the norm, and cicadas were the biggest worry for a suburban neighborhood. This book would be a safe read for girls on the verge of adolescence or struggling with friendships, and would be a good addition to an elementary library or for young middle school readers.Dianna Geers.