Bride of Slug Man: 2 (Kate Walden Directs) - Tapa dura

A preteen filmmaker mounts her second feature. Seventh-grader Kate Walden is the talk of the town. Her directorial debut, Night of the Zombie Chickens, premiered to positive notices at the local multiplex, and everyone in her class wants to be a part of her second feature. When a cool New York City boy named Tristan moves in and starts his own film project, Kate finds most of her talent pool drained by Tristan's flashy premise. Can her slug-based sci-fi romance compete with his film-noir pastiche? Populating her novel with smart kids navigating tricky social situations, Mata crafts a nifty entertainment for the post-Mean Girls generation. Friendships are strengthened and crushes blossom as Kate completes her film, and readers will delight at the drama behind the scenes just as much as in the business involving Kate's movie. Shining brightest of all is Kate herself, a character so often mistreated in books such as these. Kate isn't a know-it-all film nerd or a clueless amateur with stars in her eyes. The author perfectly captures a girl who is young, ambitious, smart, but still willing to learn about her craft and how it affects the relationships she has with those around her. Unfortunately the book overstays its welcome by a few pages, supplying an emotional cliffhanger that practically demands that readers pick up the next installment. Hopefully the author can keep the good times rolling. Smart, funny, and slick. (Fiction. 10-14) Kirkus"

After her huge success with her first feature-length movie, seventh-grader Kate Walden is eager to start on her next film, a sci-fi romance called Bride of Slug Man. When a new kid comes to town from New York City, Kate thinks she might have a new found film buddy-someone to share her interest with. And it doesn't hurt that he's pretty cute. But it turns out that Tristan is making his own movie, and now the classmates Kate thought were eager to join her cast and crew are divided.

With rumors spreading in school and between sets, Kate finds herself juggling more than just call times and rewrites. And judging from the whispers Kate hears about Tristan Kingsley, she suspects that he isn't interested in having a fellow film-buff friend; he just wants to prove himself as the best filmmaker in school by winning the Big Picture Film Festival. Kate vows to enter too, and tries to focus on just making the best movie she can.

But between the cutthroat popularity contest, a bully situation that goes from bad to worse, and several on-set mishaps, Kate is going to need all the movie magic she can get to make sure Bride of Slug Man hits the big screen.