Review Detail

MILLA TAKES CHARGE by Erin Soderberg is the first in a new series from Disney and Random House Children's Books called the Daring Dreamers Club. The book features a group of five fifth grade girls who are placed in an advisory group lead by the school's music teacher, Ms. Bancroft. Milla is the star of the show in this book, but each girl will be featured in a book going forward.

Milla thinks that her moms are anxious and over-protective. Milla has serious food allergies, and she has a scar on her face from a serious dog bite when she was young. Milla desperately wants to be an explorer who has wonderful adventures, but she's pretty sure her moms will never let her actually leave her home. Fifth grade promises many new adventures including new friendships with the other girls in the Daring Dreamers Club, and the chance to go on the fifth-grade overnight trip--if only her moms will sign the permission slip!

MILLA TAKES CHARGE features Milla's strategies to prove to her moms that the overnight trip is something that she can handle. Each attempt to showcase her ability to act responsibly ends in disaster, though, and Milla is discouraged before she even sits down to talk to her parents about the trip.

This book is a lovely start to what promises to be a terrific series. Milla is a great character, and I love her family and friends--including her pet pig, Chocolate Chip. Milla has many of the typical insecurities and challenges that come with her age, and the message of the book is how to meet those challenges with the help of others. Soderberg does a good job writing about this diverse group, and every character is well formed. I really enjoyed Annosha Syed's illustrations, too, and Soderberg ties information of real-life female adventurers into her Author's Note at the end of the book.

In all, this is an empowering, enriching, informative, and fun book for elementary and middle grade readers, and I look forward to reading the rest in the series. My thanks to the publisher and YA Books Central for a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.