Snapstreak: How My Best Friends Saved My (Social) Life

by Suzanne Weyn

A gym class concussion and a Snapchat competition converge in a middle school friendship story, told in multiple points of view using text messages and Snaps, that explores how social media has the ability to connect people in meaningful ways.

Genres: Middle Grade, Fiction, Teen, Realistic Fiction, Childrens

192 pages, Hardcover

First published February 6, 2018

About the author

Suzanne Weyn grew up in Williston Park, Long Island, New York. She has three sisters and a brother. As a girl, she was very interested in theatre and in reading. Louisa May Alcott was her favorite author, but she also read every Sherlock Holmes story. Suzanne lived pretty close to the ocean and going to Jones Beach was one of her favorite activities. Even today, if she goes too long without seeing the ocean, she starts feeling restless.

Suzanne now lives in upper New York State with her husband, two teen daughters and Abby the cat. Her house is at the edge of the woods and is nearly 200 years old. She graduated from State University of New York at Binghamton and received her master's degree from Pace University. She teaches part-time at City College in New York.

Suzanne's other books for Simon Pulse include South Beach Sizzle, a romantic comedy written with Diana Gonzalez. Her novels for the Simon Pulse line "Once Upon a Time" are The Night Dance: A Retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses, Water Song: A Retelling of the Frog Prince, and The Crimson Thread: A Retelling of Rumplestiltskin. She very much enjoys rethinking these classic tales from an original point of view, always looking for the real psychological underpinning of the story. Suzanne is currently doing revisions on her fourth book in the line, which will be coming in 2009.

Suzanne's other recent novels are include The Bar Code Tattoo (2004) and its sequel, The Bar Code Rebellion (2006). The Bar Code Tattoo was selected by the American Library Assoc. (ALA) as a 2005 Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers and was a 2007 Nevada Library nominee for Best Young Adult Fiction. It is currently translated into German and was nominated for the 2007 Jugenliteraturpreis for Young People's Literature.

Reviews

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Snapstreak has an interesting format - using Snaps (from Snapchat) to help tell the story. I know that alone will grab some of my students' attention. However, it was tough to differentiate among the different characters, as they all sounded similar.

[Cindy Mitchell *Kiss the Book* · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review may be cross-posted on the reviewer's personal Goodreads account.

Weyn, Suzanne Snapstreak : How my friends saved my (social) life, 183 pages. Middle Grade Fiction (5th-8th grade) Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2018 $15. Language: G (0 swears 0 'f'); Mature Content: G; Violence: G.

MS - ADVISABLE

8th grader Olivia (Vee) is not wanting to move, but Dad wants to live closer to work, so even though she hates the idea, she's starting 9th grade next year in a High School in a different town. While looking at their new house, she meets Gwynneth and starts snap chatting. Then a local TV station is running a contest to see if any teens can keep a new friendship (of kids from different schools) running through snapchat - a snapstreak! But they can't miss any days, or they will lose.

Oh! I liked this more than I expected to! Told mostly through Vee, Megan and Lulu - texts and snap chats included, this fun story is a great message about not using your phone at school, and how friends can pull together when there's an emergency.

Lisa Librarian
https://kissthebook.blogspot.com/2018...

[Hannah · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's overall a good story, but there are definitely some things I dislike. For one, the story is kind of out of touch. For one, Eight graders don't send snaps like the ones shown in the book. For two, I feel like the book overreacted sometimes. Like how Megan literally broke her arm from walking into a locker. For three, the clothing is really out of touch. Megan's was okay, but the other three girls didn't look like eighth graders. maybe fourths or fifths.

[Gaby · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a funny book that deals with real life situations.

[Kerrie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was fine. It's mostly fun because there are actual snaps but there is not much in the way of substance.

[A. Mills · Rating 5 out of 5]

True facts 🙃

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was ok didn't really like it

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has a lot of good examples of things to keep in mind when snap chatting, texting, or Instagraming friends.

[Latte Hawthorne · Rating 1 out of 5]

This… wasn’t very good. The main thing I remember was that the girls were all really impressed that the dude knew the word “tranquil”. Like, they’re in eighth grade, why are they surprised he knows the word tranquil? Also the pages were glossy and it was annoying. Although the book is the exact size and shape as the Zee Files series by Tina Wells and they went beside each other on my shelf which was very satisfying.