Book Review: You’ve Been Volunteered by Laurie Gelman

You’ve Been Volunteered by Laurie Gelman
Publisher: ‎ Henry Holt and Co.
Publication Date: July 23, 2019
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

If you’ve ever been a room parent or school volunteer, Jen Dixon is your hero. She says what every class mom is really thinking, whether in her notoriously frank emails or standup-worthy interactions with the micromanaging PTA President and the gamut of difficult parents. Luckily, she has the charm and wit to get away with it―most of the time. Jen is sassier than ever but dealing with a whole new set of challenges, in the world of parental politics and at home.

She’s been roped into room-parenting yet again, for her son Max’s third grade class, but as her husband buries himself in work, her older daughters navigate adulthood, and Jen’s own aging parents start to need some parenting themselves, Jen gets pulled in more directions than any one mom, or superhero, can handle.

Refreshingly down-to-earth and brimming with warmth, Dixon’s next chapter will keep you turning the pages to find out what’s really going on under the veneer of polite parent interactions, and have you laughing along with her the whole way.

The second book in the Class Mom series, You’ve Been Volunteered skips ahead from Jen’s son Max’s kindergarten year, where the first book left off, to his third-grade year. Jen has not only been roped into being class mom again but is also now in charge of the safety patrol. As if that weren’t stressful enough, her husband Ron is trying to expand is gym business and is working long hours.

I thought You’ve Been Volunteered was just as funny as Class Mom. (Read my review of Class Mom here.)  Jen is still writing the same irreverent, sarcastic emails to the parents. There are even more of them since she has to email the safety patrol parents as well. Adding the safety patrol to her responsibilities was a good way to ensure that the humor was fresh and that this book wasn’t just a repeat of Class Mom.

You’ve Been Volunteered can stand alone but it will be even funnier if you’ve read Class Mom first. And you might as well because they are both quick reads. Now I’m off to read Yoga Pant Nation, the third book in the series!