Talia Talk by Christine Hurley Deriso was a mixing bowl with an almost unknown recipe.  As each ingredient was added  and you progressed through the story, there were a couple to times you felt as if this was really all going to work out.   The ingredients eventually becoming known as love, partial back-stabbing, with bits and pieces of revenge and redemption thrown in.    [The book did not have the same "feeling" as the other books I typically read.]

Talia Farrow is the daughter of Chelsea Farrow, the host of the popular talk show “Up and At’em!”   One would think that if your job was to talk to  famous people who is what you would do …  but no,  Ms. Farrow talks about the what goes on in their home … including the instances when Talia stuck scented crayons up her nose or the time Talia used bubble gum to attach antlers to her head at Christmas.  Lets just say,  Talia has a mind of her own when it comes to doing things.  And it is no exception when Talia signs up to do a podcast with her best friend Bridget.   Talia realizes that this is the perfect plan for payback!

During one of the podcasts, Talia explains how dorky her mother is as a school volunteer.  Talia’s plan is successful, her mother is so mortified!  But, after  reasoning with her mother, Talia is able to show her mother that the podcast about her is fair and lets her continue.   One day,  Talia comes home to her Mom in a fancy outfit (date-clothes to be specific), and when Talia hears a knock at the door it dawns on her  that her Mom is going on a date.  The man’s name is Jake and he works with Talia’s Mom.  They all go for pizza and for no reason, Talia feels a sudden dislike for Jake.  She realizes that she feels threatened by Jake and feels betrayed by her Mom because she feels as if her Mom is picking someone else over her.  It takes several months of reassuring by Talia’s Mom that is not the case.  It takes some time but Jake and Talia start to like each other.  Talia’s Mom and Jake get married and, just like other books, they live happily ever after!

I enjoyed this book because I thought it was cool that Ms. Deriso used the aspect of surprise to go though the story.  You think something but then another thing happens which seemed to amuse me.   I also enjoyed this book because I’m going into middle school and this was Talia’s first year of middle school … it was like a fictional version (or preview, in my case) of middle school.  I also enjoyed it because the author put a lot of good aspects in each person’s personality.

I believe the moral is there is a thing called “good payback.”  Ms. Deriso showed this by Talia getting back at her Mom with the podcast.  Even when her mom was embarrassed about Talia talking about how dorky she is, she was able to point out to her Mom that she was still okay and to show her a lesson of how it felt.   My sister needs to learn this because there are times that I get  “revenge” towards her.  I really do it to try to teach her!