Overnight

( 4 )

Overview

Everyone expects Caitlin's sleepover birthday party to be perfect. She is one of the Lucky Seven, the group every sixth-grade girl wants to belong to. But those inside this enchanted circle know it's often less about feeling accepted and more about watching your step. Of the Seven, Gray is the easiest target for the others, and tonight she disappears. As the girls search for Gray, some of them worry. Others have secrets they're not telling, even to the police. And as the truth gets harder to hide, new emotions ...

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Overview

Everyone expects Caitlin's sleepover birthday party to be perfect. She is one of the Lucky Seven, the group every sixth-grade girl wants to belong to. But those inside this enchanted circle know it's often less about feeling accepted and more about watching your step. Of the Seven, Gray is the easiest target for the others, and tonight she disappears. As the girls search for Gray, some of them worry. Others have secrets they're not telling, even to the police. And as the truth gets harder to hide, new emotions erupt, friendships become shaky, and a power struggle ensues. The Lucky Seven is in danger of falling apart. And as for Gray, she'll need to call on all of her wavering courage just to survive this turbulent night.

Gray hopes that going to a slumber party with the "Lucky Seven" at her private school will take her mind off her mother's cancer, but when she is taken from the party by a deranged woman, both she and the other girls discover things about themselves and each other.

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Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly
Griffin (Amandine) once again penetrates the cruelty inherent in female cliques, but the novel does not live up to its provocative premise. Using a third-person narration, the author alternates among the perspectives of four of the "Lucky Seven," a group of popular sixth graders spending the night at Caitlin's house on Friday the 13th. The book begins with Gray, nicknamed "Mouse" by Martha, the group's de facto leader, for her quiet ways. Gray and Caitlin have been best friends since age five, due to their mothers' friendship, but Gray's membership in the group has grown precarious. Letitia, an African-American student new to the school who quickly sidled up to Martha ("Right away, Letitia had spotted the cool group. Martha Van Riet's group"), is angry with Martha for cheating on a science test and getting an A+; she uses the sleepover to begin breaking up the Lucky Seven. Gray goes upstairs for a drink and sees a "tattered apparition" at the sliding glass door; convincing herself that the woman is there for her, Gray leaves the house with her. The girls, meanwhile, use Gray's disappearance to jockey for position within the group. The novel excels in exploring Gray's thoughts when she realizes her mistake, and her alternating feelings of fear and hope for rescue. Although the author expertly captures the pettiness of the Lucky Seven, there are no likable characters here. Even the adults seem concerned only with keeping up appearances. Ages 10-up. (Mar.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Children's Literature
Overnight invites us into the inner sanctum of a sixth-grade clique on the night of a birthday sleepover party. Caitlin has invited the other six members of the Lucky Seven, including Gray, who inadvertently becomes the focus of the evening's drama. The Lucky Seven is ruled by Martha, a cruel and somewhat devious girl, who maintains her place in the pack through sarcasm and a steady stream of caustic barbs. The other girls follow the leader and freeze out whichever of the girls that Martha has targeted. Martha relishes this control and retaliates on anyone who dares to challenge her authority. Into this intricate social vignette, author Adele Griffin throws in a situation that will bring to light the shortcomings and desires of this group of girls. Gray has brought the "wrong" sleeping bag and, afraid of merciless teasing, implores her mother to bring the right one over. When a strange woman appears a short time later, Gray thinks she is a member of Helping Hands who has helped with errands since her mother became ill with cancer, and accepts the ride home with her. Back at Caitlin's, Gray is discovered missing and the remainder of the book switches back and forth between how the girls are handling Gray's disappearance and how Gray is coping with her bizarre situation. The pack mentality of a clique is so well drawn in this book, and Griffin's sense of what is going on in their minds is spot on. As adolescents, it is not surprising to see that despite the trouble Gray is in, they think primarily of how this will affect them. This is a realistic, psychological novel about the damage and power of cliques. 2003, Putnam,
— Joan Kindig
VOYA
This disturbing, surreal story of a group of seven unlikeable sixth graders focuses on Gray, a member the "in crowd" clique at Fielding Academy. Insecure, self-absorbed, and emotionally immature, Gray is convinced that the girls let her stay in the Lucky Sevens only because they pity her for having a mother ill with cancer. The girls go to group member Caitlin's house for a weekend sleepover. Upset that her mother brought the wrong sleeping bag, Gray calls to demand that she bring the right one to Caitlin's house. Going to the kitchen alone for a drink, Caitlin finds an oddly dressed woman tapping at the glass door. Assuming that she is from Helping Hands, the organization that helps when her mother is sick, Gray believes that the woman is taking her home to get her sleeping bag. Instead, the disturbed but harmless Katrina takes Gray to a remote house where Gray encounters a more menacing man named Drew. Gray fears for her life when Drew starts driving out of town with her and Katrina, but escapes when Drew suddenly stops on the highway and tells her to get out of the car. Gray's naïveté and atrocious judgment are credible given her emotional immaturity. Her friends are no better. What disturbs them most about Gray's disappearance is that it spoils the party. Griffin's characterizations of girls walking the thin line between childhood and adolescence are brilliant. Alternating chapters in which the leaders of Lucky Sevens offer their own troubling perspectives on the situation reinforce their self-centeredness. Gray discovers in her terrifying ordeal that there are worse things than having the wrong sleeping bag at an overnight. This unsettling, memorable middle-grade novel will havereaders riveted. VOYA Codes: 5Q 3P M (Hard to imagine it being any better written; Will appeal with pushing; Middle School, defined as grades 6 to 8). 2003, Putnam's, 160p,
— Ed Sullivan
School Library Journal
Gr 4-7-The "Lucky Seven" make up the sixth-grade in-crowd at Fielding Academy for Girls. Gray Rosenfeld feels her loss of status within the group since vindictive leader Martha has made her the victim of considerable venom. In chapters told from four characters' perspectives, each narrator reveals her own reasons for staying in the group. Gray wants things to remain the same, competitive Zo' can't help but be swayed by the magnetic Martha, Leticia envies Martha's power but realizes that she can probably stage a successful coup, and Martha thrives on controlling people. The events play out at a slumber party one evening, during which Gray goes off with a mysterious young woman who appears at the back door, and vanishes. After a prolonged search, the police are called in and Martha withholds a crucial piece of information because it adds to her sense of power, a tactic that backfires in the end. The story moves quickly through its tension-filled pages, showing the self-absorption of Gray's supposed friends and their utter disregard for her circumstances. This deeply disturbing look at the dynamics of popularity and ethics is reminiscent of Amy Goldman Koss's The Girls (Dial, 2000). Readers will certainly recognize the characters in this insightful version of the universal story of ostracism and manipulation among preteens.-B. Allison Gray, South Country Library, Bellport, NY Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
A birthday slumber party becomes the undoing of a clique when one of the guests is abducted. Gray is a member of the Lucky Seven, a poisonous preteen clique presided over by Martha, who clearly (and viciously) enjoys the power accorded her by her popularity. Gray’s membership--indeed, everyone’s--depends on Martha’s whim. The slumber party has started off badly for Gray, though, as her mother, distracted by chemotherapy, has packed the wrong sleeping bag. When a confused woman appears at the birthday party, Gray is happy to convince herself that she is an aide sent to fetch her home and escapes the party--only to be taken on a terrifying ride to the woman’s house, from which she has no immediate means of escape. Meanwhile, at the party, Gray’s absence occasions a subtle but cataclysmic shift in the forces that hold the clique together; Martha is top dog no more. Shifting perspectives effectively capture the emotions and motivations of key members of the Lucky Seven, allowing the reader to examine the group’s dynamics. Griffin has a keen eye for the cruelty of the middle-schooler, but this fails where Amandine (2001) succeeded, due to its split narrative. When Gray leaves the party, the story splits into two pieces--Gray’s own bizarre adventure, and the power struggle within the clique--and Gray’s own development as an individual is not sufficiently paralleled by the development of the rest of the group to make the counterpoint between the two stories work. For a more effective dissection of the nature of cliques, try Amy Goldman Koss’s The Girls (2000). (Fiction. 10-12)
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780606308069
  • Publisher: San Val, Incorporated
  • Publication date: 9/1/2004
  • Format: Library Binding
  • Pages: 151
  • Age range: 10 years
  • Product dimensions: 4.08 (w) x 6.96 (h) x 0.65 (d)

Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4.5
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Sort by: Showing all of 4 Customer Reviews

  • Anonymous

    Posted April 16, 2005

    Great book

    thuis was a great book, i just think it xould be more realistic, most 12 year olds dont like faries. c'mon... and most of the girls were pretty stupid 4 they're age

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  • Anonymous

    Posted January 15, 2004

    Awesome!

    This was one of the best books. I reccomend it very much. I LOVE IT!

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  • Anonymous

    Posted September 29, 2003

    a young reader

    I think this book is great for girls my age (12), its just like real life and you can totally relate to it ,just how they act and how parents are when these kinds of things happen. I hope you read this book its by far my favorate. it could be yours too.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted March 30, 2003

    RECOMMENDED

    I think this book was very good. The characters were discribed very well and like most good books there is always that character you want to persuide to do the right thing. This is the type of book that leaves you wanting more.

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Sort by: Showing all of 4 Customer Reviews
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