A Little Help from My Friends: Miracle Girls #3    by Anne Dayton & May Vanderbilt Order:  USA  Can Faithwords, 2009 (2009) Paperback      Reviewed by Ricki Marking-Camuto Junior year of high school for the Miracle Girls is much like junior year for most teens – full of changes and growing opportunities. Anne Dayton and May Vanderbilt bring all of the struggles and heartache of growing up to life in the third Miracle Girls novel, A Little Help from My Friends. Zoe Fairchild has always been the shy Miracle Girl who blends into the background. Yet, since her growth spurt over the summer, boys are starting to take notice of her, especially her history partner, East Coast transfer student Dean. Unfortunately, this makes her boyfriend, sweet band geek Marcus, jealous and overprotective. Zoe is not the only one with boy troubles – Ana and Dave have been fighting recently, Christine has gotten back together with Tyler, and Riley is dealing with Tom being off at college. And Zoe's biggest problem is that her parents are going through a rough patch economically and have decided to get a divorce. Romance, though, must take a backseat when the Miracle Girls learn there is a chance to save their favorite teacher's job – with some help from a very unexpected person. A Little Help from My Friends is filled with all the ups and downs of growing up that all high schoolers experience. Junior year really is the time when a lot of maturing happens, and Dayton and Vanderbilt portray that expertly in this third Miracle Girls novel. In the previous novels, Zoe was just there, not really standing out except for her hippie family. In A Little Help from My Friends, the reader really gets to know Zoe as she gets to know herself. This is what growing up is all about and it is shown very truly in this book. Usually by the third book in a series, the excitement loses steam and the stories become slightly formulaic. Not so with A Little Help from My Friends. Anne Dayton and May Vanderbilt have penned a novel that is on par with their previous Miracle Girls entries, and I hope this high level continues in the final book. Note: Opinions expressed in reviews and articles on this site are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of BookLoons. Find more Teens books on our Shelves or in our book Reviews