Confidentially Yours #5: Brooke's Bad Luck: A Fun Middle School Story About Friends and School Newspapers for Kids (Ages 8-12)

Filled with humor, friendship, and middle school antics, the Confidentially Yours series—about a group of kids who run their school newspaper’s advice column—continues on in its fifth installment. Perfect for fans of the Cupcake Diaries or Candy Apple books.

Brooke Jacobs never considered herself to be the superstitious type. But after she and her friends visit a psychic who tells Brooke she’s in for some bad luck, the panic sets in. And when Brooke hurts her arm, gets into a major fight with her boyfriend, and turns into a total klutz in soccer, she’s convinced her misfortune is here to stay.

To make matters worse, the Lincoln Log—the newspaper where she and her best friends write their advice column—is competing in an important contest. Brooke, Vanessa, Heather, Tim, and the rest of the team need to put together their best issue yet. There’s no time for bad luck . . . but that’s all Brooke seems to have.

Not wanting to let everyone down, Brooke must decide, once and for all, who’s in charge of her life: a silly superstition or herself. And she better find out fast, because bad luck or not, the contest must go on.

Can Brooke break the curse before she lets down her best friends and loses the competition for them all?

• Friendship and Teamwork: Brooke, Vanessa, Heather, and Tim have to pull together to create the best issue of the Lincoln Log ever, but Brooke’s bad luck threatens to derail the whole team.
• Superstition and Self-Reliance: After a psychic’s spooky prediction, Brooke has to figure out if she’s really cursed or if she’s the one in control of her own destiny.
• Soccer Stories for Kids: As captain of her soccer team, Brooke is used to scoring goals, not tripping over her own feet! Can she get her head back in the game before it costs them a win?
• First Crush Drama: A major fight with her boyfriend, Abel, is just one more thing to go wrong. Is this relationship part of the curse, too?

Jo Whittemore is the author of the tween humor series Confidentially Yours, as well as the novels "Front Page Face-Off", "Odd Girl In", "and D is for Drama". She also penned The Silverskin Legacy fantasy trilogy. Jo currently lives in Austin, Texas, where she is an active member of the SCBWI (Society of Children s Book Writers and Illustrators) and the Texas Sweethearts & Scoundrels. Jo lives off of chocolate and pizza. She would not have survived in colonial times.