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Review: Cassidy's Guide to Everyday Etiquette (and Obfuscation) by Sue Stauffacher Cassidy's Guide to Everyday Etiquette (and Obfuscation)

By Sue Stauffacher

Blurb: Eleven-year-old Cassidy has just inherited a gift from her late great-grandmother. Unfortunately, that “gift” turns out to be a summer trapped in etiquette school. What good are manners, anyway, for a girl who dreams of living life on the road as a hobo—er, “knight of the road”?

As if trying to remember to keep her elbows off the table isn’t bad enough, Cassidy’s best friend, Jack, suddenly seems more interested in doing chores for the new teenage girl who’s moved in next door than in fishing with Cassidy down by the river. Not even her classic epic pranks seem to be saving Cassidy from having her worst summer ever. It’s time to face facts: growing up stinks.

Veteran middle-grade author Sue Stauffacher returns with a cranky, pranky, laugh-out-loud tomboy heroine who might just learn the hard way that manners do matter, and that people can change.


Publication Date: June 9, 2015




If you like your characters to be actually likeable, I'd not suggest reading Cassidy's Guide to Everyday Etiquette (and Obfuscation, which I will hereto refer to as Cassidy's Guide, because, well, ain't nobody got time for that full name.

The main problem with the book is that it was sooo hard for me to identify with this MC. She's rude, (I mean, that's to be expected when the girl has to go to etiquette school in a middle grade book, but this was not the 'cute' kind of rude, she was just rude) she makes extremely poor decisions, and she's selfish. I kept waiting for character growth. It didn't come until the last few chapters. By that time I'd given up on her.

She has two etiquette buddies. One is a boy named Delton. I ended up spending the whole time feeling bad for him. He's usually Cassidy's scapegoat for all her pranks that go horribly wrong and she treats him really poorly; why? I'm not completely sure because the poor kid never really did anything bad. Then there's a weird officer who...I don't know how he became a cop?! He's not all that bright and it seems like he'd have a hard time writing out a ticket. I really didn't like any of the characters in this book.

The second thing that really annoyed me is that none of these jokes are funny in the slightest. I'm not saying this because I'm too 'mature' for them; give me a Diary of a Wimpy Kid book and I'll giggle like a third grader. They just aren't funny. In fact, a lot of them made me really mad, because a lot of them were all, "Cassidy did this, oh my, isn't she just the darnedest thing?" but no. She was not. She was a brat.

The plot could have been really interesting; etiquette class for a girl who doesn't have the slightest interest? Things like it have been done before, but it still could have been quite enjoyable. But everything was so wrapped up in the 'humorous' scenes and Cassidy that I didn't like it.

Cassidy's Guide should have been a light and fun read, but I'm pretty sure my blood pressure hates me now due to this book. Not a fan.

Posted by Gabs @ My Full Bookshelf at 4:35 PM