Battle of the Bands

Stories from East High #1

by N.B. Grace

East High is putting on its first-ever Battle of the Bands! Troy and his basketball buddies are looking forward to living out their rock-star fantasies, and Sharpay has formed her very own girl group. But while Troy and Sharpay prepare to step into the spotlight, Gabriella and Ryan are left in the shadows. Gabriella keeps herself busy by tutoring Ryan, who needs help with algebra. Still, she can't help wondering why Troy wouldn't want to join forces with her for the Battle of the Bands. Didn't the two of them make a great team at the musical? Maybe it's time for Gabriella to take the stage on her own...

Genres: Childrens, Middle Grade, Contemporary, Fiction, Media Tie In, Young Adult

142 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2007

Reviews

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library)]

This original story based on the series of DCOMs is fun, fun, and more fun.

[David Bernardino]

Returning to this took me back to 2006. It's short, it's basic, it's cringy but it certainly warms my heart. In this first adventure, Troy and Sharpay are somewhat the villains for pushing their teams to the max - Sharpay is even borderline abusive. Taylor is unexplicably an amazing singer that outstages everyone in the school choir (o...kay), Gabriella is still the most vanilla girl ever (and we love her) and Ryan is bad at math. And for some unknown reason, Sharpay wins the Battle of the Bands (as a single person, like... her band doesn't win with her). Oh well.

Some highlights of the terrible Portuguese translation:
"- Vim oferecer-te uma oportunidade incrível! - exclamou a Sharpay.
- E o que é? - indagou a Taylor num tom cauteloso. A outra mais parecia uma vendedora de televendas, a tentar impingir-lhe algum esquema de contornos duvidosos."

- Quanto mais nos aproximamos da Batalha das Bandas, pior isto me soa!
- Isso é porque pões caraminholas na cabeça - explicou a Kelsi. - É um dos perigos de actuar em público. Se não se tem cuidado, acaba por se entrar em parafuso."

[Liam Underwood]

Alright, anyone who knows me knows that I'm a bit of a fan of Zac Efron, and therefore High School Musical (2006). To celebrate turning 30 recently I threw a glorious Zac Efron musical day, and my friend got me a boxset that collects the first four Stories from East High. I finally got around to reading Battle of the Bands, and speaking as a huge fan of the films, this book is not good. The characterisation is real hit and miss, with Troy particularly ringing hollow. There are a couple of lines of dialogue that sound believable from the characters, and Chad is admittedly written quite well, but overall this is not a good book. Understandably I'm probably not the demographic for this, and sure I wasn't exactly expecting original songs, but I was hoping that this would at least be somewhat tolerable. It's not a promising start of something new.

1.5/5

[♫✯Em loves Hollenstein✯♫❤the summertime and butterflies all belong to your creation❤]

At least the characters were true to the film. Otherwise, not my thing haha

[Anna H]

The vibes were immaculate. The shenanigans ridiculous. Oh the cheese.

[Stephen Coleman]

As a kid, I enjoyed the HSM movie. Still not quite sure what my mam as thinking with gifting me the book.

Either way, I read it, didn't hate it, but would never really think about it again.

[Jesús López López]

Disney solo tuvo en la cabeza lo siguiente: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEM2k... . Claramente este libro fue lanzado para explotar y exprimir un poco mas la franquicia.
Diálogos escuetos, personajes chatos, historia simple... pero por otra parte; qué me puedo esperar??? , no esta dirigida a un publico de mi edad, quizás lo hubiese disfrutado mas unos cuantos años atrás.
Voy a darle una estrella por cada vez que me hizo reir

[Syahrina]

>>> East High is putting on its first-ever Battle of the Bands! Troy and his basketball buddies are looking forward to living out their rock-star fantasies, and Sharpay has formed her very own girl group. So.. what do you think happen to Gabriella and Ryan? They've been left behind.. So, what happened in the end? Maybe Gab hav to take the stage without Troy by her side..........

[Tigress]

I know that I read this series in elementary school, but all I really remember about it is that Gabriella sang "These Boots Were Made For Walking" in the Battle of the Bands.0 And at some point, there was a dance where Sharpay was dressed as Scarlett O'Hara, and Zeke recognized her costume and said, "Frankly, my dear, it is my favorite movie."

[Emily]

Again. The best!

[Zoya.Diaries]

Battle of the Bands is such a cute, nostalgic short story. It takes place after HSM 1 and before HSM 2. East High is putting on its first-ever battle of the bands. Troy and his basketball friends decided to form a rockstar band, allowing them to spend more time together. Gabriella felt left out when Troy didn’t even consider asking her to join his band while Ryan is dejected as Sharpay opted for a girls’ group.

When Gabriella started tutoring Ryan in Algebra, the loneliness turned them into friends. They appreciate and encourage each other. Ryan started choreographing Troy’s band as they needed his help and respected his effort. On the other hand, Ms. Darbus ordered Gabriella to go solo with Kelsi’s help.

It is simple yet an amazing read. Each character stayed true to their self, friendship, and competition yet supportive of each other, Sharpay getting a reality check with Ryan, Taylor’s powerful voice, Chad, Zeke, and Jason – it’s light, funny and nostalgic above all.  

[Raine Villanueva]

There's a Battle of the Bands Competition happening in a few weeks in East High, and the proceeds will go for the new tennis court. Troy and his basketball teammates are making a band, but they're practicing and still planning for the name of their group. Sharpay started her own group with her girl friends to perform an old pop song. Gabriella did her success in her previous play where she was a part of but is shy to join the competition, so she tries to do her best to participate while tutoring for Ryan. And Ryan spies on what Troy, Sharpay and Gabriella are up to.

And when the big day comes closer, there are a few plot twists, but the show must go on. As stated in my rating, the story is pretty okay with its original story based from the popular Disney Channel Original Movie.

[morgan rose]

i was obsessed with this series as a kid. i lived and breathed high school musical, so i remember actively looking up when each book in this series would be released and i’d make my mom drive me to barnes & noble to get it. that being said, lol this being set between 1 and 2 makes zero sense because why did chad have such an issue dancing in 2 if ryan literally teaches him to dance (albeit with a guitar) here ?? lol. the logic is missing, but whatever, as an extension of the movies, it’s still fun, harmless, and perfect for kids (and re-confirms that chad is still the worst character in the franchise).

[Bruna Alexandra]

O filme consegue ser muito melhor que o livro! Consegue ter mais pormenores e consegue ligar realmente o espectador às personagens!

Contudo, no livro também se percebe muita coisa em relação à sua história!

Mas a minha opinião não muda o filme sobrepõe-se ao livro

[Slow Reader and Crafter]

If i read this in 2007, when I bought this and the next one in America, I would probably love this. Now I think this was okay, not bad, but also nog really good. But because I read this, I want to watch the movies again ;)

[Kristi Zeneli]

Drama. Singing. Dance-offs. Teenage angst with glitter on top.

Reading this feels like stepping into a musical where everyone’s dramatic, slightly clueless, and way too passionate about basketball games. Cute, cheesy, and impossible not to smile at… even when you roll your eyes.

[Tushar Sharma]

Woh great book with simple language 🤩I am a huge fan of high school musical .......looking forward to another book

[Geiosh A]

This wasn't that bad

[Danielle]

It's interesting that in this story Ryan gets involved teaching others choreography, which is what he also did when High School Musical 2 would premiere a few months after this book came out.

[Caroline Salling]

Læste den dog på dansk:)

[Liz Yard]

I love the HSM movies and this book captures the characters perfectly 5/5

[Humna Ali]

It was a quick, fun read.

[Kate ROGERS]

this book was actually so funny

[Marie Vinter]

Jeg kantet flere ganger

[Maggie Carter]

ryan evans sneaking around in a disguise like a drug dealer of dance moves was everything i’ve ever needed

[Sophie Sternschuss]

This was just ok compared to other Disney books I read . Some characters weren’t written quite as well as others.

[Jadah Nealy]

cute and nostalgic

[Alex]

2.5

[Geiner Linares]

Ame infinitamente este libro, no se porque no lo leí antes, fue genial poder volver a este mundo y descubrir una historia que no pudimos ver en la película, debo decir que algunas escenas se me hicieron súper cómicas y muy al estilo de High School, Sin duda mis partes favoritas fueron las de Sharpay, es tan diva y cómica que es imposible no amarla, al terminar quede con ansias de más y una tristeza en mi corazón por esa infancia olvidada.

[Andrew ✝️]

The first movie did not get an amazing review from me. I felt that most of the movie seemed to take place on the longest day ever, and it never shows Gabriella giving Troy her address. Yet he inexplicably knows where she lives and the movie is supposed to take a bit of a school year. Sharpay, is shown as the antagonist and as this girl who wants the leading female role in the school play, but is rarely seen throughout the movie. It’s not mentioned right away that her and Ryan are brothers till the end of the movie, leaving the viewer to think for most of it that they’re boyfriend and girlfriend.

However, movie two is good in my opinion, being the best in the whole series. One of the movies (can’t remember which) has Sharpay singing to Troy this borderline inappropriate song that seems to have... let's just say sexual activity metaphors in it. Oy. Way to go, Disney. :⁠-⁠P

Since I liked the second movie, I have some of the books. I’m assuming that the books in this series are not canon. On pg 17, it’s revealed that this takes place after the first movie.. On pg 35, it says Prom hasn’t happened yet...so... this takes place somewhere between the first and end of the third movie?

At the start of it, the Principal tells them at an assembly that there will be a Battle of the Bands to raise funds for a new tennis court. Sharpay wants to start a band with Alicia and Charlotte. Ryan is disappointed because it’s a girl band and he’s left out. Chad wants to start a band with his basketball team mates, which makes Gabriella feel left out. Eventually, Gabriella is chosen to be Ryan’s tutor in Algebra.

On pg 62, I noticed there were a lot of parallels (I think that’s the right word) to this story; similarities/different situations with similar outcomes when it comes to Ryan and Gabriella.

On pg 12, the start of ch 2, it says that Troy and his team bounded onto the court while slapping each other high fives. I have no memories of friends high-fiving each other back then. It was 2007. You either fist-bumped or waved. Several places in the book had high-fiving as well... not sure why. High-fiving became somewhat of a patronizing or an ‘I’ll just be nice thing, but I don’t really wanna be your friend’ move somewhere between ‘03 or ‘04. Maybe Disney was trying to bring it back to what it was. *shrugs*

On pg 62, it says that Troy winked at Ryan. Granted, the context is not flirtatious, but guys didn’t do this in my High School. Admittedly, some of the flamboyant ones did, but definitely not any of our basketball team players.

My take:
Upon finishing the book, I had a spontaneous orgasm that shook my entire house because this book is so good! ...Okay. That didn't happen; but it was a little better than the first movie, which isn’t what I figured would happen. Eh. It loses three stars for something not being very believable toward the end. 2 stars.