The Test

Junior Lifeguards #1

by Elizabeth Doyle Carey

Spend a beachy summer vacation 'down the Cape' with Jenna, Piper, Selena, and Ziggy-- four girls entering their first season as lifeguards-in-training on Cape Cod's famously fun and gorgeous beaches! In this first book of the Junior Lifeguards series, the girls are vying for spots on the summer squad, with ocean legend Bud Slater hand-picking a team of winners to participate. Will they or won't they make the team? And what of the cute boys who are competing for spots, too: handsome but troubled Hayden, cute but unreliable Luke, and silent but gorgeous Jack Lee? And the competition: glamorous international society ingenue Samantha Frankel, a beautiful swimmer and rock-star rich babe, set to steal the hearts of the boys and the kudos of Bud Slater from all the local girls. Dive right into Junior Lifeguards to find out what happens on the beach and off!

Genres: Middle Grade, Childrens

254 pages, Paperback

Published April 20, 2017

About the author

Liz Carey is the author of 43 published books for young readers. She was also the Publisher and co-founder of Dunemere Books, a boutique publisher of travel fiction; a former children's book editor (Golden Books, Workman, Planet Dexter) and bookseller (The Harvard Bookstore in Cambridge, MA). Liz lives on Long Island with her husband, three sons, a high-maintenance cat named Yankee and a chunky Pug named Noolah. Please visit www.elizabethdoylecarey.com.

Reviews

[Stephanie P · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like the Penderwicks and books that feature cute girls doing REAL things and having REAL adventures then you will love this book. Very little tech and faux drama, I felt like I was stepping back in time and reading about things me and my friends would have done.

[Brittany · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally posted on Beauty and the Bean Boots

Summer fun? Best friends? A cool summer job? The Test: Junior Lifeguard by Elizabeth Doyle Carey passes the fun summer read test.

Jenna Bowers is a competitive swimmer slowly losing her top spot on the team. This summer, Jenna wants to hop out of the pool and dive into the ocean as a junior lifeguard with her three best friends. Becoming a junior lifeguard, however, may be more difficult than winning the gold.

I’ve read a few other books by Elizabeth Doyle Carey in her middle grade series, The Cupcake Diaries, as Coco Simon. Even though I really liked the author’s writing style and characterization, I thought the books moved too slow and the stories were wrapped up too easily. Luckily, I didn’t find these problems with The Test: Junior Lifeguards and hope to continue the series.

After reading this book, I think it is perfect for reading starting to outgrow middle grade, but aren’t ready to venture into grittier young adult books. The Test: Junior Lifeguards does a great job of balancing friends, family, crushes, and more serious topics in an appropriate way for younger readers. One of the best aspects of this book is Jenna’s friend group. The dynamics of her friend group are very authentic for girls in middle school to early high school, so I think a lot of readers in the target audience could relate to Jenna and her story.

I also liked that this book had a clear ending, but left a lot of room for a sequel featuring any one of Jenna’s friends. Each of Jenna’s friends have the potential to have an interesting story line featuring one of the many mysteries set up in the first book. Out of all of Jenna’s friends, I think I would be the most excited to read about Selena. Out of the group, she was the most interesting character with the most promising story line. I think I would be least excited to read Ziggy’s story because she slightly annoyed me with her immaturity, tardiness, and careless attitude.

One of my complaints with this story was how much of the girls’ conversation centered around guys. Considering the characters’ ages, it makes sense that the girls are a little boy crazy. However, it seemed like any time a male character popped up in the book, they all gushed about his attractiveness. This happened with literally any male character, even if they only appeared a few seconds, like the “manny” to the famous girls in town for the summer.

My other complaint with this story would be some of the girl drama. Like with the boy craziness, it is expected at this age. However, sometimes it got a little too much. If one of Jenna’s friends just made a reference to the boy she liked, she quickly assumed they wanted to steal them away or thought they were cute too. This especially happened when Jenna interacted with Selena, who Jenna constantly remarked was beautiful enough to steal any guy away from her. It seemed like whenever another girl one-upped Jenna she got extremely jealous. While competitiveness is part of Jenna’s personality, it sometimes was a little too much for me.

The Test Junior Lifeguards is the perfect summer read for young girls in the stage between middle grade and young adult. This would be a great book to bring on a beach vacation! I give The Test: Junior Lifeguards four out of five stars.

I received The Test: Junior Lifeguards by Elizabeth Doyle Carey from the publisher for free in exchange for an honest review.

[Amanda Work · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun new summer-read series for the advanced 5th grader and Middle School sets. Jenna, our protagonist, is a likely hero and her character cohorts are equally relatable and engaging. The story encompassed all of the necessary "fun read" elements of an early teen series: relationships, parental conflicts, physical challenge, budding self-awareness and a positive underlying social message.

Would recommend for 5th grade and up - language is mid-level with high interest subject matter.

And it's a series! (always more to anticipate by young readers)

[Sindy Martinez · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a fun, quick summer read. I really enjoyed the characters and their personalities. Everyone was different. Excited to read book two now and see what will happen next with the 4 friends and Junior Lifeguard.

[S.M. Boren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book from #kidlitexchange to read in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. 🌟🌟🌟🌟 The Test (Junior Lifeguards Book 1) by Elizabeth Doyle Carey. Two weeks before school lets out for the summer and with a rigorous swim training schedule and finals coming up Jenna Bowers is looking for an adventure. As Jenna at swim practice one day she sees a cute boy posting a flyer on the bulletin board about Lifeguard Tryouts. Immediately her stomach flutters and her mind races how to fit it into her already packed schedule. After discussing with her swim coach they come to a conclusion where Jenna can do both. After that Jenna quickly begins to recruit her friends Piper, Selena, and Ziggy to join tryouts with her. When tryouts begin Jenna quickly learns that just being a good swimmer isn't the only thing to lifeguarding. She also finds some gossip which leads her to know her ex babysitter idol, Molly, was injured and has a long road to recovery and her new lifeguard coach doesn't like her much, but Jenna is not a quitter. She strives hard to prove she has what it takes to survive small town gossip and opinions. And she even gets words of encouragement from Molly. Review also posted on Instagram @jasonnstacie, Library Thing, and my blog at readsbystacie.com

[James Nordman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed the books and am reading them to my daughter, who is a little younger, but still enjoys the plot and story line. This is a winner and it's great reading for young pre-teen and tween girls. I also love that there is a series. As a kid I loved books that had a series and those are not easy to come by or the next one takes forever! So it's a winner all around. Head directly to this series and you'll have some happy readers on your hands!

[Carrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

An exceptional new series for tween girls. So many people immediately think 'boys' when you say lifeguards, but this is a series about female lifeguards. I love meeting these girls and look forward to the next book.

[Mehsi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

I just had to read this book when I spotted it over at Netgalley. I am always interested in the whole lifeguard stuff, it is so vastly different from how it is over here.

And the lifeguard stuff + the friendship + the dedication of our MC was great, however I would have rated the book much higher if I liked the MC more, and if it wasn't so overdramatic at times.

Our MC is Jenna, she is a top swimmer at her school's swimming club. She is hoping one day to make a career with swimming, she hopes to go to the Olympics. But then she finds out about the lifeguard tests, and her interest is peaked. I like how this girl loves exploring new options, and how people gave her a chance to actually explore them.
But for quite a bit of the book I just wanted to throw her into a pool of ice cold water. The way she PUSHED her friends to participate even if they clearly didn't want to participate (I don't care that in the end they quite liked it/got interested in it). But also the way she acted at the tests. Like she was so vastly superior, and then when things didn't go right she immediately huffed and puffed like she was supposed to be oh so great. And then when the boss of the lifeguard stuff tells her x and y, she is all offended because OMG I AM SO GREAT. Yes, girl, you can swim like a dolphin, and yes, you have quite some skills, but seriously, you need to kill that attitude of yours.

My favourite girl would be a mix of Piper or Selena. I wasn't too sure about Ziggy. She is there at times, but I never really learn much about her, plus she just seemed to be more of a background character.

The lifeguard tests were really fun to read about, I wish I could participate in such things. Though it seems to be quite a bit of work, but I wouldn't mind working hard.

The drama surrounding Molly? My lord, was that really necessary? Given how everyone was so secretive about it I thought she was either pregnant or addicted to drugs.... but in the end it turned out that. Which was also pretty bad, but not as bad as everyone made it seem.

Then there was the whole drama surrounding the Slater family, the rich kids (and Selena's family), or what was going on with Hayden. And also the mystery surrounding Ziggy. It was just too much, and too silly at times.

I didn't quite like Samantha (you just don't take a towel from someone when it is clearly NOT yours, plus how she barely had to do anything and just got whatever she wanted, bleh).

But all in all, I flew through this book and I quite enjoyed myself. I can't wait to read the next books in this series.

Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/

[loreley god. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd like to thank the publisher for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Jenna used to be the star of her swim team, but recently, she hasn't been doing well. She feels pressure from her coach to improve, and decides to try out to be a junior lifeguard. Her idol, Molly, was a lifeguard, but now her parents avoid talking about her. She has to convince her parents and her coach that being a lifeguard like Molly, would help her swimming. After much wheedling, her friends agree to try out with her for junior lifeguards. At tryouts, she worries that her friends are doing better than her and that the outcome will separate them. Jenna struggles to deal with jealousy and crushes, and learns secrets about her community that affect the way she sees the world.

I didn't like the character of Jenna very much. She seemed to have a pessimistic view of her life, and it was reflected in the writing. The narration felt overly simplistic, which disappointed me. I understood Jenna's frustration over being second-best, but I was bothered that she didn't do anything about it. Most of the book she complained about how others didn't realize how great she was. Jenna could've improved with hard work and effort. I felt that so many amazing messages could have been conveyed but unfortunately, they were omitted due to the character's lack of growth.

I felt that the romance was an adult's interpretation of what they thought teenage girls thought about most of the time. The protagonists obsess over the boys in almost every chapter. There was nothing that made me want to root for Jenna and her crush. It felt so convenient that Jenna and her friends each had a boy to flirt with and blush around. Whenever there was a male around, the characters were guaranteed to gush about them. I felt that the romance was not realistically portrayed, especially in the characters' reactions to it.

The Test is a drama-filled book about friendship and perseverance. It is meant for a younger audience, and since I wasn't the intended audience, I didn't enjoy it very much. It wouldn't be my first recommendation to either elementary school or MG readers. The narration and over-simplified storyline would not convince me to reread it.

See my review at Reading Violet.

[Kimberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

@kidlitexchange #partner —— All opinions are my own.

What a cute start to a new middle grade series. This book introduces us to the Junior Lifeguard program. Participants must have a parental waiver and be able to pass a swim and ocean test in order to join. I love that it introduces readers to the amount of responsibility and endurance these lifeguards must have. Both tests were interesting to read about and it was neat to see how the characters approached it in their own way.

The main character in this book is Jenna, but you are also introduces to quite a large cast. There’s the 4 girls who make up the series: Jenna, Piper, Ziggy and Selena. Each has there own interests, strengths and personalities. I’m looking forward to getting to know them better as I continue reading. It also includes a few boys to crush on (which might have been why some of the girls signed up in the first place), a couple coaches and the girls families. There’s also a side character named Molly who ties in a story about the oath lifeguards take and how they are there to protect the people around them with their skills. Even in dangerous situations.

Full of true friendships, cute crushes and even a bit of mystery. This is perfect for preteens who are fans of swimming and ocean life and would make a wonderful summer read. I look forward to starting book 2, Oscar Season, very soon.

[Michelle (MichellesBookishLife)]

Jenna, Piper, Selena and Ziggy are ready for a fun-filled summer on the Cape as they embark on their journey to become junior lifeguards. They’re hoping to make the cut and that program director Bud Slater will pick them. The girls’ competition is gorgeous Samantha Frankel, and they want to keep their heads in the game long enough to beat her. However, it won’t be easy with the temptation of Hayden Jones and Luke Slater around, two uber-cute boys who also want to make the squad. Can they pull it off? Read Junior Lifeguards: The Test by Elizabeth Doyle Carey to find out!

[Jayme Carruthers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to the @kidlitexchange network for the
review copy of this book - all opinions are my own.

Meet Jenna, a 13-year old who lives and breathes swim team. This year, a new activity catches her eye - Junior Lifeguards. When her swim coach gives her the opportunity to take a break and try out, she takes it. Book 1 is all about the test. Will she make the team?

This book is definitely a perfect match for the 10-14 age range that is suggested. The main characters are approximately 13 years old and seem to be your typical girls - sports, working with their families, taking finals, and crushing on boys. However, even as an adult reading this I wasn't bored. I found myself wondering what Jenna was going to do next. Elizabeth Doyle Carey does an excellent job of letting us into Jenna's head and we can feel every emotion she is feeling. Her descriptive way of writing put me right there on the beach with the girls and gave me the same butterflies they had when the list of who made the squad gets posted. I'm definitely ready to read the next book! 💜

#kidlitexchange #bookreview #reviewer

[Stephanie P · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really great tween series. Great characters for girls and a fun story.