Danny Constantino's First (and Maybe Last?) Date

April 15, 2020
A seventh grader invites a celebrity to the school dance. Danny Constantino was best friends with Natalie Flores Griffin throughout primary school. When Natalie went on to become a famous child star in Hollywood, the pair emailed back and forth for a bit, but the emails eventually stopped. Three years later, Danny's dealing with the loss of his childhood dog and a mom who's running for mayor. Luckily for Danny, the big dance is coming up and Natalie has accepted his emailed invitation to be his date...and everyone is losing it. Danny's mom wants to use her in the mayoral campaign. Danny's principal wants to get Natalie to take part in the pep rally. Danny's friends want her to go trick-or-treating with them. Danny juggles everyone's desires as best he can while reconnecting with an old friend who hoped for nothing more than a few days out of the spotlight. Danny and Natalie's blossoming romance is well drawn, and Acampora steers clear of treacle territory with deft deployment of subplots. The book's structure is a bit uneven, and some of the supporting players are thinly developed, but Danny's relationships with his grandmother, his mother, and Natalie reinforce one another, painting a strong portrait of a young boy coming in to his own with the help of three strong female characters. Danny and Natalie seem to present white, but Danny has several friends of color. Every first date should be this charming. (Fiction. 11-13)

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June 1, 2020

Gr 5 Up-High expectations turn Danny Constantino's very first date into a blur of stress and excitement. A teen celebrity, a socialite mother, and living in a small town further heighten Danny's anxiety. In tiny Cuper Cove, seventh grader Danny is a wallflower. His mother, on the other hand, is a self-made, overzealous realtor who is also running for mayor. Danny's life turns upside down when his best friend's sister sends a text invitation to Natalie to attend Cuper Cove's Halloween Dance. Better known as Natalie Flores Griffin, the Hollywood "It Girl," Natalie was Danny's close friend before moving and becoming a major star. Midway through the afternoon, students, the principal and Danny's mother discover that Natalie has accepted the date. This is a fast-paced, humorous escapade that tackles the social awkwardness of middle school dating. Authentic yet witty dialogue advances the plot while providing crucial character development. Tween movie fans will recognize the multitude of rom-com and popular movie references, helping to alleviate the potentially cheesy romance focus. Readers will relate to Danny, whose life seems to move without him at times, mirroring an adolescent perspective. VERDICT A lighthearted, realistic fiction book that uses humor to quench the social anxiety of middle school life.-Mary-Brook J. Townsend, The McGillis Sch., Salt Lake City

Copyright 2020 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from June 1, 2020
Grades 5-7 *Starred Review* Ordinary middle-schooler Danny is stunned when rising child-star Natalie Flores Griffin, a close friend until two years ago, when she flew off to a Hollywood career, unexpectedly texts that she would like to be his date for the middle-school Halloween dance. Maybe he could keep her small-town visit a private, low-key affair? Fat chance, as Acampora surrounds his increasingly frazzled seventh-grader with electrified schoolmates and pushy grown-ups who have agendas of their own?among the latter is his type-A single mom, a relentless wheeler-dealer in the midst of a fierce, yet unopposed, campaign for mayor. Natalie turns out to be a lonely, down-to-earth sort who enjoys what she's doing but hasn't let the fame go to her head and, knowing kind, (usually) calm Danny better than he knows himself, has never stopped valuing him despite their recent distance. The scenario sets up a bright, brisk rom-com (complete with a young cineast who supplies reader cues by explaining to Danny how rom-coms are supposed to go) that the author delivers with a string of hilarious, if sometimes agonizing, twists on the meet-cute and other conventions. He also dishes up a cast made up of smart, likable supporting characters behind a pair of deeper-than-average leads who, despite being at different places in their lives, display a strong friendship.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)