Yoga Pant Nation

February 1, 2021

Jen Dixon is back, this time as class mom of her son Max's fifth and final grade at his elementary school. Her emails once again contain their typical sarcasm, funny threats, and a side of shaming for those parents who don't follow through with their duties. However, not only is she handling being class mom, the PTA president has roped her into raising money ($10,000 no less); she's also on a mission to become a certified spin instructor like her idol, Carmen, as well as the best grandmother to her daughter's two-year-old. Needless to say, Jen has a lot piled onto her plate. Gelman packs it in yet again with the third installment in the "Class Mom" series (after You've Been Volunteered), keeping up with the irresistibly uproarious one-liners, the cast of characters whom readers have loved since Class Mom, and the introduction of a new character, the "other" grandmother, who irritates Jen in more ways than one. VERDICT Readers will be changing from their "house" yoga pants into their "dressy" yoga pants--each pair with its own specific use--and all of those in between, and laughing all the way.--Erin Holt, formerly with Williamson County Public Library, Franklin, TN

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2021
Jen Dixon is now a caregiving grandma, a classroom parent, a PTA fundraiser, and a spin instructor--Stay in the saddle, riders! We met the irresistibly snarky Jen as a kindergarten parent in Gelman's debut, Class Mom (2017), and caught up with her in third grade in You've Been Volunteered (2019). As our 53-year-old heroine's son enters fifth grade, Gelman's comic style has gotten a wee bit cramped--for one thing, she's already made a lot of the possible jokes about riding herd on the other parents, but also the mores of 2021 have taken some of the teeth out of her comedy. She can still do jokes about spelt-spirulina pretzels and gluten-free cookies; when Jen takes care of her daughter Viv's out-of-wedlock 2-year-old three days a week, she learns that "everything I did for [Viv] as a child has caused adult-onset you-name-it," resulting in a "parenting style that can best be described as a cross between Mary Poppins and the surgeon general." On the other hand, great care must be taken not to offend anyone, removing a lot of comic potential. Gelman confesses in her acknowledgments that her editor had "the unfortunate job of telling me over and over again, 'You can't say things like that anymore.' " Honestly, you can tell, though the struggle to tamp down the inappropriate didn't quite succeed in this amusing sentence: "My parents' possible dementia is nothing to laugh about, but the people in the basement have become a scapegoat for everything from who ate the last cookie to who killed JonBen�t Ramsey." What's added to fill the void is way, way too much spin class. Do Gelman's readers really want to hear so much about Jen's vigorous exercise program, including 6:30 p.m. yoga classes and insights like "I have discovered that yoga is a great counter-workout to spinning, which has a tendency to tighten up my legs and hip flexors"? Let's hope that middle school gives Jen more room to breathe. Not the strongest of the series.

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June 1, 2021
PTA presidents, aging parents, fifth-grade sleepovers--it's nothing Jen Dixon can't handle. Fans of previous Class Mom novels (starting with Class Mom, 2017) will know this is Jen's second time around the playground, with two grown daughters and a two-year-old granddaughter, in addition to son Max, age 10. These days, Jen is busy helping care for granddaughter Maude and trying to kick-start her career as a spin instructor while balancing her usual jobs as wife, mother, daughter, and class mom. Things keep getting more complicated, though, and suddenly she's been ""voluntold"" to raise $10,000 for new iPads for the school, Max is struggling with a potential bullying situation, Maude's father has filed for joint custody, and something may be seriously wrong with Jen's parents. Jen's struggles will be amusingly familiar to many women living in the sandwich generation, and fans of previous books in the series will be delighted to follow along with this latest outing of the mom who says the things they wish they could. It's a safe bet this isn't the last we'll hear from this class mom.

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