OK... WOW. This book surpassed all my expectations and more! Caitlyn is the new girl in town at the Mitchell School in Mitchell, Vermont, aka THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE. Seriously! The 7th grade literally only has 10 kids! Well, 11 now, with Caitlyn. And it seems like there used to be 11 kids in the year before too, a kid named Paulie Fink being the eleventh. Everyone expected Caitlyn to be Paulie when she walked in the door, but Paulie never showed up. Paulie was indefinitely missing to the 7th grade class of Mitchell, nicknamed the Originals after being the first class to start off the brand new school in kindergarten. As Caitlyn asks who Paulie is, she is overwhelmed with stories about his tricks and pranks and overall, how great of a person he was and how great he made going to school be. Caitlyn never really gets a grasp of the real Paulie Fink, she only gets snippets through the stories. But what she does know is that this kid was a legend amongst the Originals, and life really seems to be duller without him. But then Caitlyn comes up with an idea to try to get in with the Originals and become a popular 'silver dollar,' as she puts it. Caitlyn wants to have a contest to decide a NEW Paulie Fink to take his place as class clown and make school less boring again! The rest of the students vote Caitlyn as judge, and she puts them through intense rounds of elimination to find a new Great Paulie Fink! I flew through this incredible book and the ending kept me hanging on! Totally different then what I expected, honestly. And it was GREAT. I LOVE LOVE LOVED this book! I've read "The Thing About Jellyfish" by this same author, Ali Benjamin, and this was a great second novel to top it off. This book was filled with laughs, adventure, and realistic situations of middle school, and no joke, my eyes filled with tears as the book came to a close. I didn't want it to end! I recommend this book to any middle schooler, or really anyone who goes to school, or anyone who doesn't! Everyone should read this book! 5/5 stars and I recommend it for ages 8+. A really a great novel, I can't say that enough, and I can't wait to see more novels from Ali Benjamin in the future!
The Next Great Paulie Fink
By Ali Benjamin
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In this highly anticipated second novel by the author of the award-winning, bestselling The Thing About Jellyfish, being the new kid at school isn't easy, especially when you have to follow in the footsteps of a classroom prankster like Paulie Fink.
When Caitlyn Breen enters the tiny Mitchell School in rural Mitchell, Vermont, she is a complete outsider: the seventh grade has just ten other kids, and they've known each other since kindergarten. Her classmates are in for a shock of their own: Paulie Fink--the class clown, oddball, troublemaker, and evil genius--is gone this year.
As stories of Paulie's hijinks unfold, his legend builds, until they realize there's only one way to fill the Paulie-sized hole in their class. They'll find their next great Paulie Fink through a reality-show style competition, to be judged by the only objective person around: Caitlyn, who never even met Paulie Fink. Who was this kid, anyway--prankster, performance artist, philosopher, or fool? Caitlyn's quest to understand Paulie is about to teach her more about herself than she ever imagined.
Told via multiple voices, interviews, and other documents, The Next Great Paulie Fink is a lighthearted yet surprisingly touching exploration of how we build up and tear down our own myths...about others, our communities, and ourselves.
Book Reviews (16)
I really enjoyed reading Ali Benjamin's newest novel "The Next Great Paulie Fink"! When Caitlyn a new 7th Grader shows up at the Mitchell School instead of everyone's pranking hero, Paulie Fink, the quest to find "The Next Great Paulie Fink" begins. Everyone picks Caitlyn to judge the competition, she reluctantly agrees that way she can her mind off her old friends. Between hilarious competitions, soccer games, party trouble and crowning The Next Great Paulie Fink, what could go wrong? Nothing could until The Mitchell School becomes at risk of being closed do to not enough money. Will the school be saved? Or will it be shut down? Find out in The Next Great Paulie Fink!
The Next Great Paulie Fink is a surprisingly great book. It's about Caitlyn, a 7th grader who is being forced to move to a new school in Mitchell, Vermont. She desperately misses her old friends and worries about adapting to her new school. However, her new school is weird, crazy, and definitely unusual. Her entire grade comprises of 10 odd kids, ranging from the girl who always wears pantsuits to the twin boys who play a crazy pretend game. All of them are shocked that Paulie Fink, the hilarious class clown, is no longer in their school. Caitlyn can't stand her school, but as she learns about Paulie Fink's wild pranks and her classmates, she begins to open up and enjoy it. It doesn't end there, though, because her classmates want to find their new Paulie Fink, and they pick Caitlyn as their judge. Through the crazy adventures, the engaging ending, and the amazing writing, this book deserves all five stars. The front cover itself shows how crazy and interesting the book is!
How do you become a legend? That's the question that Caitlyn Breen must answer when she moves to rural Mitchell, Vermont and finds out that her class (of 10 ) isn't happy about her replacing their most beloved peer, Paulie Fink. Paulie was something different to everybody-awesome, class clown, evil genius- but everybody agrees that Caitlyn definitely is not a good replacement. So they decide to hold a reality-show kind of competition to replace Paulie. As the judge, because she's never met him, Caitlyn struggles to learn who Paulie was but ends up learning more about herself. I really like this book, and recommend it to everyone. Thanks to the Advanced Reading Club and DOGO for giving me the awesome opportunity to read it.
It was actually, kinda impressive. At first, I didn't really think this book is something I would like to read, I just didn't think it would appeal to my taste. But no, it was like, really good. The Next Great Paulie Fink is all about the horrors, ups, downs, and how to overcome that evil middle school version of yourself. It follows the life of Caitlyn Breen ,a girl in seventh grade that has to move to a new middle school in the middle of nowhere. She has to overcome the obstacle that is finding yourself. At the same time, she hears stories about a kid names Paulie Fink who, apparently, impacted the school and kids greatly. This book is different. It really shows the real side of middle school and how it was (truly) not the greatest. Hard. It was straight up hard, and this book shows that but with metaphors. I received an ARC from DogoBooks.
This book is amazing it kept me hooked and i could not stop reading honestly i want a part 2. When Caitlyn is forced to move away from her friends to a new school she hates it. She has to leave everyone and everything behind for Vermont. But the school she goes to is like no other with only 11 students in her grade and one student missing and a pen full of goats. Paulie the only name her classmates would chant, Paulie was a legend at this school but that just makes him sound unreal. She had never met him and honestly could care less, she hated this school they had a Zucchini day, all she wanted was to go back to her friends. But those friends back in New York cut her off and now she was left with no one but these 10 other students who she would never accept(or would she?). These 10 kids did not care about how they looked or what they were doing they just wanted to have fun. The kids in her class were the orignals they had been going to this school since kindergarten they had been there since day. Who would be friends with who was already decided not many seventh graders came in. But Paulie had disappeared and no one knew why or where. Than her classmates had this amazing idea, they made a game show to find someone like Paulie, and lucky(not so lucky)Caitlyn got to judge it. This is a fun goat filled adventure that really teaches everyone to appreciate the things around them to accept others and just be kind.
I really want to read this book!!! Where did you find it?!