"10 Steps to Girlfriend Status" by Cynthia T. Toney

About this book:

  “A Cajun family secret, two very different boys, and a fight to keep a grandmother’s love—who would’ve guessed that looking through old photo albums could get Wendy into so much trouble?
  Wendy Robichaud is on schedule to have everything she wants at the start of high school: two loyal best friends, a complete and happy family, and a hunky boyfriend she’s had a crush on since eighth grade—until she and Mrs. Villaturo look at old photo albums together. That’s when Mrs. V sees her dead husband and hints at a 1960s family scandal down in Cajun country. Faster than you can say “crawdad,” Wendy digs into the scandal and into trouble. She risks losing boyfriend David by befriending Mrs. V’s deaf grandson, alienates stepsister Alice by having a boyfriend in the first place, and upsets her friend Gayle without knowing why. Will Wendy be able to prevent Mrs. V from being taken thousands of miles away? And will she lose all the friends she’s fought so hard to gain?”


Series: Book #2 in the “Bird Face” series. (Read review of the first book, Here!)

Spiritual Content- A couple prayers; Wendy wears a crucifix & is Catholic; Mentions of God; Mentions of prayers; Mentions of Church & Mass.

Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘blah, blah’, a ‘TGIF’, a ‘shut up’, a ‘wimp’, a ‘witch’, two ‘idiot’s, two ‘rats!’, three ‘stupid’s; A couple cuss words try to escape from Wendy’s mouth; A mention of suicide in book #1; A mention of smoking.

Sexual Content- two cheek kisses, a barely-above-not-detailed kiss, and a boarder-line barely-above-not-detailed // semi-detailed kiss; Touches, Embraces & Dancing (up to semi-detailed); Noticing; Wendy has a list of “10 Steps to Girlfriend Status” & tries to achieve it (steps include: hand holding, cheek kisses, PDA, & a date); Boys, boyfriends, breaking up, dating, & being a couple and a girlfriend; Jealousy; Talks about dating; A guy is called a ‘hunk’; A couple mentions of book #1’s girl who had an eating disorder; A mention of a baby & when it was conceived (no details); Mentions of crushes; Mentions of crushes & hand holding; Mentions of falling in love;

           *Note: a mention of a bottom, “bounced on my butt on the mattress.”.

- Wendy Robichaud, age 14
                                         1^st person P.O.V. of Wendy
                                                        202 pages

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Pre Teens-

New Teens-

Early High School Teens- 

Older High School Teens-

My personal Rating-

{Add a star for girls in Public School}

“10 Steps to Girlfriend Status” was very well written, very true to young teens and emotions. Wendy has grown since book #1, “8 Notes to a Nobody”. I personally found it a bit odd to read about a 14 year old having a boyfriend, dating and a couple kisses, but I know that's pretty normal out in the public school world. I also found it a bit odd, that once Wendy's mom got married, they (Mom and Papa D) left Wendy and April (ages 14) stay at home alone, watching their six year old brother for a week. I can't see any parents I know who would do that, personally.  The “scandal” added a neat (& somewhat sad) mystery to this teen book. I wish there was more Spiritual Content, though.

I do hope there will be more “Bird Face” novels, since the writing was great and I enjoyed this one. :)

See y’all on Monday with a new review!

*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.

*I received this book for free from the Author for this honest review.