I’m back with another MMGM! I have to say the cover of this one caught my attention when it kept popping up in my Twitter feed, so I clicked on it to read the description, and then I had to get my hands on the actual book. I’m so glad I did.

Seventh grader Jeremy Miner has a girl problem. Or, more accurately, a girls problem. Four hundred and seventy-five of them. That’s how many girls attend his school, St. Edith’s Academy.

Jeremy is the only boy left after the school’s brief experiment in coeducation. And he needs to get out. His mom won’t let him transfer, so Jeremy takes matters into his own hands: He’s going to get expelled.

Together with his best friend, Claudia, Jeremy unleashes a series of hilarious pranks in hopes that he’ll get kicked out with minimum damage to his permanent record. But when his stunts start to backfire, Jeremy has to decide whom he’s willing to knock down on his way out the door.

Here are the five things I loved most.

1. The friendships – Really, you could say the theme of this book is friendship and figuring out what it means to Jeremy. He has two girl best friends, one of whom he takes for granted, and even when he meets another boy, he doesn’t really get that they’re friends. Jeremy learns how to navigate those friendships during the course of the story.

2. The crush – The description of Jeremy’s crush and how he can’t even explain why this girl is different from the hundreds of other girls who surround him is so spot on. The moment he met her was one of my favorites in the book, and watching him stumble through his interactions with her was just priceless.

3. The pranks – I also loved not so much the pranks themselves but Jeremy’s yo-yoing emotions as he and Claudia performed them. At heart, he’s a good kid and doesn’t want to get in trouble, even when he thinks he needs to in order to achieve his goal of getting kicked out of St. Edith’s. But the prank where they get post-its and … well, I won’t spoil it :).

4. Jeremy’s character arc – So the prank discussion leads to Jeremy’s growth. I loved how experiencing the pranks led him to figure out what was really important to him in a number of areas. Did he really want to get kicked out? What was more important, getting credit or staying safe? He had to answer these questions and more and come out stronger.

5. The stakes – I have to say the stakes surprised me several times. I thought the pranks wouldn’t be a big deal and then–bam!–things were much worse than anticipated. Well done, Ms. Malone, on raising the stakes! I wasn’t sure how things would turn out in the end.

Overall, I thought this was a fast-paced and enjoyable read. I highly recommend it!