As I hit my quarter life crisis or point, whatever you want to call it, I decided that I should finally read the book series I have at this point always skimmed-the Beacon Street Girls!

Just as the tagline says “They’re real, they’re fun, they’re just like you.” Each book presents a slice of life at the Abigail Adams Junior High School through a close-knit group of five, Charlotte, Maeve, Avery, Katani and Isabel. The series tackles the typical milieu of middle school problems such as making friends among disparate personalities, rivalries in a class election, parents separating, healthy eating and so on.

According to wiki, it was created as a wholesome alternative to what the publishers saw as obscene and exploitative children’s literature of the early 2000s. You know, the time when everyone was focused on Hillary Duff’s virginity when she was 16 so I understand where they were coming from. I liked they brought up common topics in a natural way like living with an autistic sibling and showing various female role models in nontraditional and traditional roles like housewife, mechanic, fitness instructor, model and so on.

And moreover, I believe they succeeded in showing the ups and downs of seventh grade in a way that didn’t feel too preachy (though some points were obvious when the girls talk about how it’s uncool to talk about someone else’s weight or drinking is not fun) and focused more on how the girls’ personalities bounced off one another and the natural conflicts and adventures that would occur.

It helps that the supporting cast is equally distinct and developed such as Katani’s grandmother/the principal of the school, Mrs. Fields, Charlotte’s crush, Nick, class clown, Henry Yurt, know-it-all Betsy Fitzgerald and the Queens of Mean. It feels like real life and the characters could be your friends, not just reader avatars.

As for the girls themselves, they can be friends, but depending on whoever has the POV, they can rub you the wrong way. I have to admire Bryant that she’s willing to commit to their flaws and have them regress because hello, they’re 12 year olds, they’re not paragons of maturity and it keeps the story interesting. Charlotte is the writer of the group, the constant new girl thanks to her father’s travels and a klutz. She’s the one who is most likely for readers to glom onto, but I’d argue that Maeve is whom the author has a real soft spot for.

Maeve is the wannabe actress of the group, the romantic and ready with a movie reference for any situation. She can be a lot. She was extra before extra was a thing. She often steals the scenes she’s in, and while she’s the heart of the group, I did find myself wishing she didn’t take over as many plots in the last few books of the series as the favoritism started to feel obvious.

Avery is the hyper, athletic one. She despises most girly stuff, and is most interested in environmental/animal rights. Almost as if BSC’s Kirsty and Dawn wrapped into one. She can be blunt and tactless which is made her my least favorite but I did wish she had more chances to shine in later books as I enjoyed her fierce passion for politics and leadership.

Katani is the one I admire the most. She’s the fashionista and is planning to run the world someday with her Kgirl enterprises. She’s organized, very Type A, and poised which makes her come off as cold. She can also be moody and competitive and take on too much by herself which I relate.

Finally, Isabel who was my favorite. Both from how pretty the illustration was and being a latina cartoonist. She’s the sweetest, and as much as I’d hate to say it, probably the one with least flaws. Unless you count being shy and unable to say no a flaw.

While the series is perfectly adequate, there are some flaws later on. I suspect there was a ghost writer because there were continuity issues in later books and character regression that made it feel like it wasn’t the same author as before. Book 13, Green Algae and Bubblegum Wars had a very misleading summary. Also the girls had too many contrived coincidences I suppose. Too many meet-ups with celebrities that took me out of the grounded, slice of life tone of earlier books.

I thought it was interesting that much like the Clique, the series also had a subseries of special adventure stories where each girl gets a solo vacation story in first person rather third person POV. Those I loved as not only do they get to travel, but they give more insight to how the girls handle situations outside of their comfort zone without their close friends.

The final book of the series, Sweet Thirteen, felt like a full circle moment in some ways as Charlotte’s longtime pen pal/Paris friend Sophie comes to visit and Charlotte feels displaced for the first time after settling in Boston. This allows for the friends to renew their friendship. All the supporting characters get to make a cameo. But it also felt just another book in the series and I wished that as the school year is closing we got a more in-depth look into how the girls have grown over the course of seventh grade. A little more reflection from each girl instead of Maeve, and Charlotte getting all the plots.

In that sense, Ready, Set, Hawaii, the sixth book in the adventure super special series felt more of a full circle as each girl got equal time to shine and had a moving moment reconfirming the power of friendship.

Basically, it was a fun trip down memory lane especially as it has some hallmarks of early 2000s like the optimistic belief that we can save the environment, singing competition reality shows ripping off American Idol, and these amazing newfangled things like chat rooms. Yet it still holds up encouraging girls to be themselves and trust in their friends.