3 Reasons Why You Should Read Emmie & Friends #9: Entirely Emmie by Terri Libenson

What’s the book about?

Crushes. Camping.

MIDDLE SCHOOL

These days, Emmie doesn’t feel so invisible. At least not around her best friends and her crush, Tyler.

Class-clown Joe’s jokes aren’t landing the way they used to. Who doesn’t love a good prank Apparently not his so-called friends, who don’t even seem to care if he’s around.

When their class goes on an end-of-year camping trip, Emmie and Joe find themselves stuck together—and expect the worst. But what happens instead turns out to be entirely unexpected.

Recommended for: 

Ages 8+

Three reasons to read it: 

1. A school camping trip already guarantees chaos. You’ve got people forgetting toothpaste, tents flying away in the wind and that one kid who’s way too into survival skills. But when you toss Emmie and Joe into this mix, it becomes something entirely unexpected (see what I did there?). Emmie, who’s still figuring out how to feel seen and Joe, whose jokes are flopping harder than wet socks, end up being camping buddies … and let’s just say neither of them is thrilled about it. But what starts as an “ugh, why me?” situation turns into something way deeper. It’s about how being away from the usual middle school madness gives them the chance to connect in a way they never could in the classroom.
2. Switching between Emmie’s and Joe’s perspectives is like getting the secret backstage pass to the story. You see how each of them thinks, how they misunderstand each other and how they both grow in totally different but complementary ways. Emmie’s chapters feel quiet and thoughtful, like sitting under the stars with a sketchbook. Joe’s are louder, messier, full of zingers and self-doubt he doesn’t want anyone to see. Together, their points of view tell a full story of middle school that feels honest and real.
3. There’s just something magical about how Libenson writes. She doesn’t make fun of her characters or sugarcoat what they’re going through. She writes middle school the way it actually feels — the weirdness, the worry, the way your heart can explode just because someone said your name in homeroom. In Entirely Emmie, the emotions hit hard, but so do the laughs and it all feels incredibly relatable. You’ll finish the book smiling and maybe even feeling a little braver about your own middle school adventure.

Buy a copy of Emmie & Friends #9: Entirely Emmie here.

About the author:

Terri Libenson is the New York Times bestselling author of the Emmie & Friends series and the cartoonist of the (now retired) award-winning comic strip The Pajama Diaries. Terri empty-nests in Cleveland, Ohio, with her husband, Mike. She is the proud mom of two grown daughters and a poodle.