Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me free access to the digital advanced copy of this book.

Full review to come on Goodreads and Amazon. Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for a review copy.

I’m on a quest for more diverse children’s books to recommend to customers and I really enjoyed this one!

It had a good pace and was a lot of fun to read, I pretty much binge read it in one go! I also think Pippa will be relatable given her struggles with fitting in so it’ll resonate with quite a few readers!

Where was Pippa Park when I was in middle school? I would have loved seeing a main character who looked like me and had a similar background as me in the stories I read! Pippa is so relatable and you feel for her as she juggles with all the things thrown at her in middle school. Did I cringe? Sure! But I enjoyed the reality of the story while laughing through it, too. I would definitely recommend this to middle-age readers!

Pippa is such a fun character. I loved having the opportunity to read from her perspective again. I hope we get more from her.

A fun follow-up to Pippa Park Raises her game! In the weeks leading up to Christmas, Pippa is once again trying to balance the academic and social pressures of her student life at Lakeview with the pressing financial and family pressures of home. Trying to please her mostly wealthy friends, she ends up putting herself into what seems to be an impossible situation, and she finds it difficult to speak up honestly about her limitations. As Pippa's anxiety kept increasing, so did mine as a reader, until I found myself wondering just how long she could keep going. Pippa is a sympathetic heroine, and I love the subtleties of her relationships with her family (sister, brother-in-law, mother) that pull her in one direction, while her friends/school life pull her in another. The first Pippa book has been very popular at my library, and I can’t wait to introduce this sequel to our young readers!

Pippa is back and juggling a lot, basketball, bullying, boys, school, family and more. But because of one person’s bullying she won’t ask any of her friends in the royals for help. She has always had a crush on Eliot but he never paid much attention, but when Pippa finally resolves herself to another boy she meets at church all of sudden Eliot now wants to do things with her, however she messes it up with both boys. The way Pippa sees it her whole world is imploding and she wishes she could disappear with it, but that doesn’t happen, you’ll have read the book yourself to see if everything turns out OK including her relationship with Boz.
I love these Pippa Parks books because I don’t know about you but I think most of us has been in one of these situations at one time or another, but Pippa has us all beat with everything all at once. Pippa is a person who really wants to make everyone happy but seems to always do things the hard way because she doesn’t want to bother anyone else when things don’t go right. I love these books a lot and can’t wait for more.

Perfect for the target audience! This book is exactly what we go through during our younger days, confused and trying to figure out lots of things everyday.

I specifically love the friendship vibes in the story. Our main character, Pippa, has a crush this time and she's anxious and confused about it.

I love the writing. I love the realistic characters with the exact stage of the age representation. I also appreciate the multicultural representation.

I don't know about the adult and young adult readers but I would say the middle grade readers will appreciate this one.

Such a good series. All the confusion and fun of growing up!

Waiting for the next book!

Thank you, Fabled Film Press, for the advance reading copy.

Pippa goes to a private school, and in order to be popular feels that she needs to host the Christmas party even though her family can ill afford it. I liked the bastketball in Pippa Park Raises Her Game, and I have a couple of students who are waiting for the sequel, but the Great Expectations reimagining was completely lost on them. I really liked the South Korean representation, and it's interesting that Pippa's mother is living in that country while Pippa is in the US staying with a sister and brother-in-law. Plenty of romance and friend drama, but not enough basketball!

In 2019, Pippa Park Raises Her Game hit middle grade shelves and made a splash: a modern-day take on Charles Dickens's Great Expectations, with a Korean-American lead character and a group of mean girls who broke all the stereotypes. I devoured the book and have booktalked this to dozens of my library kids. I'm so happy that we've got a follow-up to love now, too: Pippa Park: Crush at First Sight picks up shortly after Pippa Park Raises Her Game. Pippa's getting into the swing of life at her school, she's kinda sorta a Royal, even though Caroline seems to be trying her best to get Pippa to throw in the towel, and her best friend, Buddy, is now dating Helen. There's a new crush on the scene, too: Marvel, an old friend, shows up on the scene when Pippa agrees to help volunteer with a local pastor's drama club and sends Pippa into a tailspin: sure, Eliot is blonde and handsome, but Marvel is fun, makes her laugh, and likes the same things that she does! The fun begins when Pippa rashly agrees to host the Royals' Christmas party at her sister's apartment, just as Pippa's sister takes in a very talkative neighbor, Ms. Lee, who's recovering from an injury. Pippa hasn't learned all of her lessons from the last time: she's still trying to do it all, and putting off disaster for another day. 

Pippa Park is such a great character: she's got great depth, able to move from being bubbly and fun to stressed the heck out, to conflicted, all at once. She's the very definition of tween! (Okay, and maybe 50, because honestly, I feel like this at least twice a day every day.) Erin Yun includes cultural references, particularly amazing food, and has a brilliant grasp of complex middle school relationships. Her characters are kids that readers know; that may be the kid reading this book. Kids separated from their parents and being raised by other family members; kids stressed about looking good in their friends' eyes; kids trying to navigate friendship, growing up, and social status. It's all real, and it's all here. Here's hoping we get more Pippa adventures.

Visit the Pippa Park webpage for downloadable resources, including an AAPI Guide and book club kit.

Pippa Park: Crush at First Sight is another slam dunk for Erin Yun. A great add to your shelves.

My own daughter is about to start middle school and I’ve been on the lookout for books with a good mix of romance and friend drama, as those are two topics that will start to become more prevalent in middle school. This book had both, and is the exact type of book that I think she’ll enjoy and relate to.

Pippa was pretty independent for a 7th grader. And the dilemma she found herself in was very believable! I can see my own daughter doing the exact same thing, although hopefully coming to me a little bit earlier. I liked how Pippa tried to problem solve on her own, and I empathized with how she felt as she’s adjusting to a new school and group of friends.

The crush part was realistic as well. I can remember having so many crushed at that age, and often having multiple at the same time! Her best friends who are dating was relatable as well. While 7th grade is young, plenty of 7th graders have boyfriends/girlfriends and it’s very much a part of middle school and growing up.

The friendship part was interesting, and seeing Pippa navigate her new friend group will be very relatable to kids. My own daughter will need to make some new friends as several of her close friends will be going to a new school in the fall. I’m glad that books like this exist so kids realize that it’s a common occurrence that others experience as well.

I think this will be a great series for my daughter! I’m grateful for diverse representation and characters that look like my kids, and thankful to the publisher, author and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this.

I am sure that middle school readers will have a different appreciation for this book than a 40-something year old librarian, but I found myself frustrated with the main character Pippa throughout the book. She is so worried about what her friends think of her that she cannot tell the truth about her inability to host the annual Christmas Party. I had hoped that in the end she would learn the importance of being truthful but luck worked to her advantage and she got the desired result she wanted without ever having to fully come clean. I also felt like this book perpetuated the same myth of the importance of popularity that the books I read in the 80s and 90s did. We never get a sense of the other girls at her school that she could possibly befriend as she only has tunnel vision for this group of "it" girls. Overall, it was an entertaining sequel but I felt it could have done better.

Pippa Park wants to be part of the Royals, the name the cool, popular girls have given themselves. They are everything Pippa wants to be, and she plays basketball with them, and they have sort of invited her into their group, that is, if she will host the annual Christmas party.

Pippa is at a private school, on scholarship, so have no idea how she is going to manage this, and stresses for the entire month, and most of the book, trying to figure it out.

It is the usual middle-grade story of trying to fit in, with the added twist that Pippa is Korean-American, and her family run a laundromat, and money is tight. Plus, her mother has gone back to South Korea, and can't make it home for Christmas, and she is living with her older sister and brother-in-law.

Throughout the book, Pippa knows what she must do, but she internalizes so much, that she doesn't want to tell anyone what is wrong. She keeps hoping that by thinking about it, things will magically all turn out.

Good story, though a little slow in places, while Pippa just internalizes. But, like any good story, the most important thing we all need to do is communicate.


<em>Thanks to Netgalley and Edelweiss for making this book available for an honest review.</em>

Honest review from my nine year old daughter:

I reall liked Pippa and her love triangle. The story was great and I really felt like I could be friends with her. Would read again!

*4.5 stars*

Pippa lives with her older sister and brother-in-law, who have raised her since she was very small. It's December, and their mother usually travels to the US for the holidays, but this year she isn't able to come. This is the first indication Pippa has that this Christmas might not be the best. She's also trying desperately to fit in the Royals, the group of popular girls she made headway with in the first book (full confession, I haven't read that one, but definitely intend to). On top of that, her best friend from her old school and her best friend from her new school are dating, and Pippa feels abandoned. So she jumps at a chance to host the fancy Royals Christmas Eve party - only she doesn't have the space or the money to do so!

I didn't pick up the first Pippa book because I thought it would be sports heavy (I'm not a huge sports book fan), but I obviously missed out! Pippa does play basketball, but it's not central to this novel. She's also crushing on boys (in a way that is very believable for the tween set), desperately earning money from babysitting gigs, and half a dozen other things. Despite the frenetic nature of this book, it doesn't feel cluttered. I enjoyed Pippa's escapades, and I think tween readers will enjoy them too.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.