Literature / Allie Finkle's Rules For Girls

Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls is a series of children's books by Meg Cabot about a 9-year-old fourth grader named Allie Finkle. Allie keeps a book of personal rules to live by in order to get through the tough situations life brings, as well as just personal pet peeves of hers ("Never eat anything red."). The first two books in the series focus on her settling into her new home and school after she's moved.

Provides Examples Of:

• Age-Appropriate Angst: Allie's biggest problems involve her parents moving into a fixer-upper, and being friends with a Spoiled Brat.

• Can't Get Away with Nuthin': Allie breaks a promise to attend Twirltacular so that she can attend Brittany Hauser's birthday party at Glitterati when invited. Brittany proceeds to bully her for most of the party, to the point that Allie fakes sick and leaves when she hears that Brittany is going to draw all over her face when she's asleep.

• Heel–Face Turn: Rosemary, who threatened to beat up Allie in the second book but eventually joined her group of friends.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Allie gives up her opportunity to switch with another teammate during a field trip to help a boy who gets bullies.
• I Have Brothers: Tomboy Rosemary says she has five brothers. Allie remarks she couldn't tell.
• Inelegant Blubbering: Mary Kay gets her way by crying a lot. Allie lampshades it in the first book.

• Laser-Guided Karma: Brittany spends most of her birthday bullying Allie and trying to make her miserable. When Allie fakes sick and leaves, Brittany's pranks with the girls lead to them and her mother getting kicked out of the Hilton hotel and banned for life from all Hiltons.

• Moment of Weakness: Allie gets invited to Brittany Hauser's birthday part the same day she promised to go to Twirltacular to support Erica's sister, Missy, who is competing. Allie at first refuses, until she learns that the party is at Glitterati, a makeover salon. She regrets making that decision.

• Real Life Writes the Plot: When Allie is cast as an evil queen in the school play, she bases the character off Cheyenne and Missy so she can better portray her.

• Token Good Teammate: Courtney is the only member of Brittany's Girl Posse who is nice to Allie, and warns her about Brittany's pranks.

• Ungrateful Bastard: During a field trip, Mary Kay gets stung by a bee. Everyone runs away when Caroline says that bees will come and swarm. Only Allie stays and helps Mary Kay get to the office, missing part of an exhibit she wanted to see, encourages Mary Kay to stay, and lies about the sting not looking so bad. Of course, when Mary Kay looks in a mirror, she goes back on the brief camaraderie that she rekindled with Allie and starts crying again.
• We Used to Be Friends: Allie used to be friends with Mary Kay, a Spoiled Brat, until she broke her promise to not tell anyone she's moving on the latter's birthday (which resulted in Mary Kay getting a mean card) and things got worse when Mary Kay made fun of her for keeping a list of rules and turned her into a pariah.
• With Friends Like These...: Even before they fell out, Mary Kay treated Allie poorly despite them being ostensibly "best friends", rarely taking her feelings into consideration and crying to get her way. Allie even admits at the beginning of the first book she doesn't know why she's friends with her other than that she is the only girl her age who lives on her side of the street.

---