bottom's up

Tallulah Casey is back. She’s back in Northern England. She’s back at Dother Hall, her performing arts school. And she’s back in her squirrel bedroom with her squirrel slippers and the bonkers family of knitters and toddlers who have opened their home to her. She’s back for her school friends, the Tree Sisters. She’s back for her friend Ruby and Ruby’s dog Matilda and the owlets.

And she’s back for the boys.

After spending some time with her cousin Georgia, Tallulah is armed with the full snogging scale, which she remembers most of. And she’s ready for the snogging, because there are boys. There is Ruby’s older brother Alex, who is studying acting in Liverpool but who wrote her a letter, which she keeps under her pillow. There is Charlie, one of the boys from nearby Woolfe Academy, who kissed her so sweetly and then apologized, saying that he shouldn’t have done that because he has a girlfriend. And then there’s brooding local musician Cain, who is bad news but still wildly popular with all the local girls.

But there is bad news at Dother Hall. The school needs an influx of money or it will close. They have decided to do one last show, an attempt to make some money and save the school. It is decided that they will perform A Midsummer’s Night Dream in the local pub The Blind Pig. And Dr. Lightowler has chosen the perfect role for Tallulah: Bottom, the donkey.

Will Tallulah be able to infuse her special comedy into her role, and help save Dother Hall for herself and all her fellow performers? Or will she have to give up on her dreams or performing and have to go back to Ireland before she could even be kissed by Alex? Or kissed again by Charlie?

A Midsummer Tights Dream is the second book in Louise Rennison’s hilarious Misadventures of Tallulah Casey series. Fans of her series about Georgia Nicholson series will find a similar wit in these books, although Tallulah and her friends are a little younger than Georgia and her mates. But the zaniness is the same, the laughs are just as prevalent, and the friendships are the center of the book.

I have been reading Louise Rennison for ages, and I was thrilled when she started a second series. I was reluctant to read the last two, as they are the last two, but lately I’ve needed more laughter and light in my life, so I have gone all in with Tallulah. And she is a joy to spend time with. I adore this character and would follow her anywhere. Worship the knees! It’s all about the knees.

I will say that while you could read these books out of order, they friendships build as time goes by, so I do recommend reading them in order. There is a glossary of Tallulah and her friend’s mad language, but even with that, the experience is richer if you read Withering Tights first.