The Influencer: A Heartfelt School Story for Ages 10-14

What if positive gossip could spread as easily as harmful gossip?Peer pressure is real, and thirteen-year-old Callie has found a way to use it for good.As the anonymous Influencer, she can give her classmates any reputation they want by spreading positive gossip. Pretty? Athletic? Funny? Kind? Good or bad, all it takes is a handful of people saying the same thing and-voilà!-everyone believes it.Sure, it's fake, but as long as her words are helping and not hurting people, it's all good... until the new girl shows up with a chip on her shoulder and threatens to expose Callie's secret identity to the whole school, including her goofy little brother, who doesn't know Callie's been meddling with his social life since third grade.Now, Callie is blackmailed to perform an impossible task: To prove her business is good, she must make sure every kid at school has a friend-whether they want the help or not.But some kids would rather be alone than have fake friends, and her brother is carrying his own secret of what went wrong with Callie's last real friendship.Perfect for readers ages 10-14 who enjoy character-driven, upper middle grade school stories, The Influencer explores themes of friendship, authenticity, and the unintended consequences of trying to fix everyone else's problems.