Tracy Lacy for Classy Captain! by Tania Lacy

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Ill. by Danielle McDonald. Tracy Lacy bk 2. Scholastic, 2017. ISBN 9781760275969
(Age: 8-11) Themes: School Life, Humour, Friendship. Tania Lacy's high octane character Tracy Lacy returns in Tracy Lacy for Classy Captain! Time for Tracy to leave the familiarity of primary school with all of its hideous experiences and humiliating incidents and start fresh at Northwood High. Of course nothing goes to plan, her very first day is a disaster, there's an embarrassing situation at lunchtime, and Tracy inhales a blowfly and expels it in a large snot tentacle which lands on Year 12 student Lisa Harmes' uniform. Screaming and pandemonium occurs and Tracy decides to either move to Latvia or stay at home for the rest of Hell School! When the Year 7 Class Coordinator Mr Master announces there will be a vote for a boy and girl class captain for the whole year level, Tracy decides it is her time to shine. Her rival and arch-enemy from primary school Victoria Fuller is there to thwart Tracy's dreams. She shares Tracy's dreadful art drawing from her early days at school, her rainbow pony Oomphoff who farts rainbows with the other Year 7s. Poor Tracy Lacy is disgraced again. With her loyal friends Ag and Ponky's support she bounces from one disaster to the next. She even scores her Daily Working stats - Mood, Sucky Moments, Unsucky Moments, and 'TRA-LA-FO-CLA-CA' or Tracy Lacy for Class Captain moments.
Tania Lacy's over-the-top character Tracy Lacy's distinctive voice, side thoughts and side-side thoughts with her unusual family and laugh out loud school incidents make this an amusing novel. Danielle McDonald's expressive caricatures add humour and liveliness to Tracy's diary entries. With flourishes, starry borders, bold sized text and an array of fonts, Tracy Lacy for Classy Captain is a visually exciting novel. Themes of self-acceptance, resilience, loyalty, puberty, coping with the transition to high school, family life, making the right choices are included.
With a large dash of comedy and some cringe-worthy moments this novel is just right for preteen readers both girls and boys.
Rhyllis Bignell

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