Middle Grade Review: Tess, Terrorists, And the Tiara

Title: Tess, Terrorists, And The Tiara

Author: Terry Baldwin

Published: April 10th, 2012

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Goodreads Summary:

Thirteen-year old Tess has never been able to compete with her “perfect” older sister, but now she must—if she wants to inherit her grandmother’s priceless tiara. The two girls have been invited to their grandparent’s lake house for the summer to help take care of Grandma who’s been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. The sister who earns the most “helpful points” wins the former beauty queen’s crown.

"It’s not easy for Tess, who seems to always get things wrong despite best intentions. And who is that mysterious stranger who’s just moved next door to their grandparents’ summer cottage?
Does he know that Tess’ grandmother was once the winner of a famous patriotic beauty contest? Or that she keeps her tiara where anyone can steal it? And why doesn’t he have a face?

My Thoughts:

This was one of the middle-grade books I have read in a really long time and I enjoyed so much of it and I thought the story was really cute with some very important lessons added into it. 

Tess is 13 years old and her and her older sister ( who is 16 years old and perfect according to Tess) are going to spend one last summer with their grandparents at their cabin, their grandmother has Alzheimer's and is beginning to get worse, she wants to give one of her granddaughter's her tiara that she won in the Miss Land of the Free beauty pageant. The way for them to win the tiara is by earning helpful points by helping out their grandparent's around the cabin.

Tess was an adorable character, she tried so hard to be helpful and it always seemed to backfire for her and she just ended up getting in the way, it made her such an endearing character in my eyes. Tess learned the important lesson of tolerance and understanding people's culture's before judging who they are. Although she was not perfect, in the end she was the one who ended up saving the day and even realized what doing a good deed is and really matured throughout the story.

I recommend this one for middle grade readers, teaches kids about tolerance of people of other religions and races and also what it means to be a good and helpful person. It was such a cute story that I enjoyed reading!