Accidentally Friends

Accidentally #4

by Lisa Papademetriou

Seventh grader Amy Flowers is finally fitting in at super-exclusive Allington Academy, but there's one last thing standing in her Fiona, the oh-so-mean queen of the League. But Amy has a plan of her own-and this time, what happens is no accident!

Genres: Middle Grade, Childrens, Realistic Fiction, Romance, Fiction, Juvenile, Contemporary

160 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2009

About the author

Bestselling author Lisa Papademetriou is the author of the 'Confectionately Yours' series, 'Middle School: Big, Fat Liar' and 'Homeroom Diaries' (both with James Patterson), and many other novels for middle grade and young adult readers. Her books have appeared on the Bank Street Best Books of the Year list, the NYPL Books for the Teen Age, and the Texas Lone Star Reading List, among others. A former editor, Lisa has worked for Scholastic, HarperCollins, and DisneyPress, and holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. HarperCollins will publish her next novel, 'A Tale of Highly Unusual Magic', in October 2015.

Reviews

[Brynne]

This book was really good! I cannot believe that the series are over! Sooooo good. So it all started out how this girl named Amy likes this guy named Scott. She sees him at a wedding and talks to him. They build a relationship and start meeting each other places besides school. But when Preston wants her "evil" mind for planning the prank, Amy agrees. She is starting to enjoy Preston's company more than Scott's. Fiona, is the "Queen of Mean" she is rude, selfish, and she ALWAYS gets what she wants. so she wants to plant bluebonnets, which are the official state flower of Texas and it is illegal to dig them up. So the school would have to leave them there. But then, Amy gets an idea. And EVERYBODY likes it. They will put thousands of bookmarks in the library books so they will be there when they GRADUATE. And they will put alarm clocks that RUN (clockbots) all around the school to go off every 30 seconds.

Lucia is Fiona's best friend and was holding a party at her house, the end of the school year party. And Fioona is MAD. It was supposed to be held at her house. NOT Lucia's. Scott knows from Amy that Fiona. Lucia, Pear, and Ivy, (the other 2 best friends of Fiona) are not in Amy's league and she doesn't want to be their friends. But when Amy and her best friends: Mitchie, Kiwi, Anderson, Jenelle, and Preston, start giving Fiona a chance they start to be friends. Scott said "dont come complaining to me about them". Amy decided she was done with Scott after this. So basically, she asked Preston out on a date to 5 Mountains. And he said yes. Amy and her friends are friends with Fiona and Lucia! SO READ THIS BOOK!

[Jennifer Wardrip]

Reviewed by Allison Fraclose for TeensReadToo.com

It's the last week of school at Allington Academy, and everything seems to be going insane for Crazy Week.

Amy Flowers has officially given up on trying to patch things up with Queen of Mean Fiona after a recent misunderstanding drew the girls even further apart, right when it had seemed they were becoming friends. Meanwhile, Amy's friend, Jenelle, suspects that her boyfriend, Anderson, might be breaking up with her, since he's spending so much time with Kiwi, and Michiko still won't admit to Amy that she has a crush on Amy's older brother, even though all the signs are there.

Fiona, on the other hand, seems to be losing her place in "The League" of popular girls to Lucia, her old second-in-command whose prank drove the wedge between Amy and Fiona, and Amy doesn't know if she should feel sorry for Fiona or pleased that she is finally getting what she deserves.

Amidst all this, Preston keeps pestering Amy about joining the committee for planning the seventh grade prank, and Amy is hesitant to do so. However, she realizes that Preston does not seem nearly as annoying as he used to, and she doesn't know how she should feel about that, either. While her crush, the eighth grader Scott, keeps giving her mixed signals, Amy wishes that, for once, boys and girls could just be honest with each other and clearly let others know how they feel. But her genuine wish could spell disaster for her friendships, all of which seem to be teetering on the brink of madness. It's anyone's guess how this Crazy Week will end, but it's obvious that nothing will ever be the same again once the school year is over.

A fine end to a fine series, one can appreciate Amy's level-headed approach to relationships, as well as her struggle to navigate her way through this emotional end of the year for the seventh graders of Allington Academy.

[Jan]

Seventh grade is almost over for Amy Flowers, but relationships are still confusing. Amy tries to apologize to Fiona, but ends up literally in a mess. Field Day isn't much better. Her "is-it-really-a-date-or-are-we-just-hanging-out" time with Scott afterwards would have been more romantic if she weren't covered in shaving cream and wet grass from the balloon relay. And then Prank Day -- well, sometimes Amy just can't figure out people.

Lisa Papademetriou has another winner with the authentic voice and concerns of a 13-year-old girl. Not as well plotted as Accidentally Fooled, but the 10-to-13-year-old girls who love Amy and her middle-school friends won't care.

[Leen]

My childhood comfort book

[Abby Lay]

I really liked this. This concludes my nostalgic reread session.
The pace of this book out of the four is completely different. The other three followed Amy experiencing school related dramas. This one was basically following Amy's potential love life. I'm obsessed with the way Papademetriou depicted romantic situations and feelings. Since this book is aimed at young girls in middle school there is absolutely no PDA. The most that happens is a hug or a kiss on the cheek. I LOVE seeing how an author conveys sweet feelings with less available in their arsenal.

Justice for Scott's character arc!!!!

Scott was just fine in the first book but honestly the seeds of destruction were sown in the second book. Coincidentally, that's when Preston is introduced. I am glad that Amy ends up with Preston but it was at the cost of the maligning of Scott's character. Which feels unnecessary since we had Scott as a major subplot through all the books. Yes, he started to show sus behavior in the second book but his character was really taken down in this 4th installment.

It wrapped up the Fiona drama. I liked that it attempted to show the depth in an antagonist however I think it fell short in major ways. Fiona kept switching from being a rude and manipulative diva to being gracious and generous. Which isn't very realistic. But such is the duality of fictional girlie antagonists.

All around a very nice end to this sweet series. It reminded me so much of where I was in life and my personal development right around the time I read it the first time. In 2007! :O! I hope today that the kiddos have excellent stories like this to hold on to.

[Mira]

I didn't even really understand what this book was about. It's kind of pointless. That might have something to do with the fact that this is the last of the four-book "Accidentally" series, and I haven't read the other ones. Also, there was too much "OMG DO YOU THINK HE, LIKE, LIKES ME?!" and "WAAAA HE'S DATING, LIKE, SOMEONE ELSE" and "HES SO BORING DO I REALLY, LIKE, LIKE HIM?!" for my tastes. It makes Me want to throw up, eat my barf, and throw up again. Hey, this book has something in common with Justin Bieber!!

[Melody]

How do u read this book

[Karen Patrick]

All right, the Preston and Amy Flowers ship has sailed so *checks watch*, I should probably get on board. Bon voyage, mes amours!

[Chance Hansen]

Is it perfect? I wouldn't say that but it tried five times harder to cover everything that's contain in these pages.

Cover
So apparently it's part of a series. It would have been great to know that first before reading the last book first. The cover is pretty straight to the point. I have to say Placing them within what looks like the outline of a school crest really gives the cover that sorority vibe. Does that even work for mid-grades?
It took me a while to figure out who's who on the cover
Amy; top left
Michie top right
Jenelle; Bottom left
Fiona; Botom right

(I like the nod that Michie has short hair on the cover.) Nice nod to drama happening before the book.

Story
Personally I think this book spread itself way too thin. Too many thing going on with too many characters.
Not convinced? They are toying with the idea of three love squares, Serenade Day, Feast day, Crazy week/Prank day/Field Day, dating, school end party, a wedding. All within 153 pages. That's not including the relationship and bully plotlines.
With there being so much going on It feels like the story never has a chance to take a breath without something happening elsewhere.
The book really tries to cover everything and finish everything it introduces while holding onto being a moral story and it almost covers it all. You'd expect everything would get muddied up and hard to follow. Surprising enough it's written well enough and guides you well enough you know what is going on as it's happening.

Quite a few moments did feel overlooked and they should have been utilized more.
Such as the first date with Scott being a flop. Granted she is self-conscious through the whole time but she did admit to enjoying time with him.
I really wish the Feast Day was actually in the book. It really would have been cool to see how Preston interacted with Amy at that moment. (Especially if Scott was there to it would have been fair game.) Without Scott it would have been a nice visual to compare Scott to Preston then.
Also we don't know what happened on Field day. Did they win any medals? Nothing is said about it after the event's over.
It is somewhat disappointing that it doesn't completely reveal of the results about anything that is supplied.

I love Kirk! I can see myself in him and it's hilarious! He stole every scene he appeared in With that I really had to focus to keep from getting all the characters mixed up. I did a good job keeping them all in order but unless I read their name on the page I couldn't recall any names to save my life.

The End (SPOILERS!)
I was most concerned about the end. The cover really laid out the power of friendship thick on the cover. Fiona's transition may have been a touch too sudden and a touch too much of a personality flip for such a short time. As for Scott I find him a little more unbelievable in the end. Who talks like that? Especially if you aren't even in a relationship. Not once was it a conceded boyfriend/girlfriend relationship He sort of jumped the gun on controlling that one.

Two Final Thoughts!
What is with Scott and that weird cute meter of his? Chocolate sauce on her chin and shaving cream in her hair and he thinks she's cute. I have to say he isn't the standard jerk you normally find in books.

I'm not kidding I felt like this was a rough draft of a Miraculous Ladybug school and it sort of works. It even helped to keep all the characters in order.
Amy/ Marinette
Scott/Adrian
Prescot/Luka
Michie/Alya
Fiona/Chloe
Lucia/Sabrina
Kiwi/Rose
Mr. Pearl/Ms. Mendeleiev

[AndiMan]

This is a decent series for its target audience but I see why it remained entirely forgotten in my mind. The romantic switch up was cool in this book. I'm still wondering what happened to that best friend from the first book tho.

[Amber Lea]

I recently reread the series and idk how my young dumb self didn't catch on how Preston literally already liked Amy since before the last book, it was already so evident in the second book 😭 it straight up took the line where Amy asked Preston out on a date that made young me realise lmao

[Chloe]

Very cute but unrealistic friendships and mean girls don’t normally work that way

[Natalie]

I loved these series. They are definitely a comfort book.

[Lara]

The best book ever Iam in love with preston

[Cathy]

I read this after my entering-5th grader, who loved it. The silliness is funny.

We talked about girls having a crush on more than one boy at a time being boy-crazy.

I liked that the Amy character was forgiving and that she said some of the others were learning how to be good friends. The Scott character had a valid point, too, about being careful with your friendships, particularly if they are manipulative or mean-spirited at times. I understood Amy's shifting emotions, but I think she should have tried to explain to Scott that her frienemies (people that act as both friends and enemies) were learning how to be better friends rather than - SPOILER - just dumping him because he wanted her to be careful in befriending those who had betrayed her before. Amy and Scott could have worked through that and practiced both forgiveness and caution. Now, her preferring someone else was a different story and perhaps worth breaking up over. After all, this was just middle school. They weren't married.

[Alisha]

It been years since I finsihed the series. I miss them so much!. The series starts with a girl named Amy who tries to fit in at Allington Academy, this rich pretigous school with kids who come from rich families. As for Amy, she is on scholarship! The series gets even more incredible with the love between Amy and Scott and Jennelle and Amy's friendship. As for Fiona, she hates Amy and Amy's friend Mitchie. I actually wish I went to a school like Allington Academy, its seems modern and classy. Accidentally Fablous, Famous, Fooled and Friends was 4 amazing books!

[Jamika]

What ive' learned from this book is that sometimes your'e enemies will become your friends whether you want the to or not and that if they get along with you have to give them second chance.

[Isabella]

The part I liked best was when Fiona and Amy started to become friends. I love friendship stories so this is one of my favorite series, including Harry Potter, Percy Jackson.

[Sarah]

i am getting in to the book!

[Madeleine]

Thi was an interesting book. It is a little book, but still captures the readers interest. woah the letters are appearing after i type them. hehe

[Anja Sprite]

Love this book! It might be my favorite out of all the "Accidentally" books... But I also loved Accidentally Fooled. So yeah. Read it and enjoy!

[Candide]

Read it in a day!

[Hattie]

I bet the basic plot took 2 seconds to write, and 2 min for the whole story. Fiona and Co. are not believable at all

[Christina]

My favorite one out of this series, it really is a satisfying end. And a funny end. Hehehhe.

[Sabrina A]

I loved the "Accidentally" series of Lisa Papademetriou!

[Selma Raquel]

I really like this one!

[Mink Tedibea]

Note:
Cute yet annoyed me.

[Tswizzle.♥]

I Didn't even finish this book. Its a very bad book for me.

[Pinkie]

it looks great

[Maggie Sapyta]

I loved this one!!!!!!!!