ALA Booklist (Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 CST 2009)

Dowell's The Secret Language of Girls (2005) traced the gradual unraveling of the friendship between two suburban sixth-grade girls. This sequel follows Kate and Marylin into seventh grade and shows the girls accepting both the distance between them and the comfort of having a trustworthy friend when you really need one. As in the last book, Kate is the more self-possessed one, though she is not without doubts or worries as she pursues her studies and songwriting. Marylin deals with divorced parents and cheerleading peer pressure but soon finds her own way in student government. Dowell's light but observant style reveals the benefits of not judging anybody cluding yourself o quickly.

Horn Book (Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2009)

Kate and Marylin (The Secret Language of Girls) are now in seventh grade, staying friends even though they're not as close as they once were. Cheerleader Marylin runs for student government, while Kate is interested in guitar-playing and songwriting. Dowell again demonstrates sensitivity to the concerns of middle-grade girls. Her protagonists are portrayed sympathetically as they pursue new friends and experiences.

Kirkus Reviews

"Do you ever miss it?" Marylin asks Kate. "Being all-the-time friends, like we used to be?" The protagonists of 2005's The Secret Language of Girls return, their sixth-grade year having found these two BFFs drifting apart. One year further along, they are still negotiating their new relationship, cheerleader Marylin desperate to help her friend not seem quite so "weird," while budding rocker Kate declares, "I'm good the way I am." At school, the girls occupy their separate orbits, finding new friends and new interests while still checking in with each other. Marylin's decision to run for student government provides her the opportunity to define herself and to develop a more mature friendship with Kate. The shifting third-person narrative follows each girl in turn, investing both with clearly distinct and highly sympathetic personalities that lead them in occasionally criss-crossing directions; the questions they ask themselves as they try out new identities arise naturally and their answers are always disarmingly honest. Dowell's characteristically sensitive exploration of the inner lives of these two girls will resonate long and loud. (Fiction. 10-12)

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

This sequel to Dowell's <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">The Secret Language of Girls follows Marylin and Kate as they start seventh grade on a tense note, having drifted from being BFFs to being neighbors who tiptoe around each other, unsure of what to say. The third-person perspective shifts between the two: Marylin learns that being a cheerleader means putting up with obnoxious snobs, and Kate develops an interest in songwriting. This even-handedness is both a strength and a weakness. Both girls are sympathetic but the constant switching back and forth between their various crises—Marylin's parents' divorce; Kate's anxiety over a cute boy in her creative writing club—means neither girl's story gets substantial treatment. It's more a slice of middle school life, kept afloat by Dowell's smart insights into the way the middle school mind works. The territory is familiar, but for girls on either end of a friendship whose contours keep changing, Dowell's treatment will act as a balm. Ages 8–12. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Jan.)

School Library Journal (Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 CST 2009)

Gr 5-8 This insightful sequel to The Secret Language of Girls (S & S, 2004) stands alone, but readers will want to go back and find out more about these engaging characters. Kate and Marylin used to be best friends, but sixth grade changed things. Now, as seventh graders, they are trying to work their way back to the way things "used to be." But it's not so easy when they are so different; Kate's new passion is the guitarand her heavy black bootswhile Marylin, a cheerleader, is determined to be feminine and popular at all costs. Alternating points of view make it easy for readers to relate to both girls as they navigate friendship, romance, and family relationships. Dowell gets middle-school dynamics exactly right, and while her empathetic portraits of Kate and Marylin are genuine and heartfelt, even secondary characters are memorable. A realistic and humorous look at the trials and tribulations of growing up and growing independent. Laurie Slagenwhite, Baldwin Public Library, Birmingham, MI