View source for Viva La Diva! (Lola Love) by Lisa Clark

{{infobox1 
|title=Viva La Diva! (Lola Love) 
|author=Lisa Clark  
|reviewer=Zoe Morris  
|genre=Teens
|summary= From confidence to positive thinking, this is the ultimate go-to guide for all future Divas. 
|rating= 4.5
|buy=Yes 
|borrow= Yes
|pages=128 
|publisher= Harper Collins Children's Books
|date= April 2008
|isbn= 978-0007264919
|website=http://www.lolasland.com
|cover=0007264917
|aznuk=0007264917
|aznus=0007264917
}}

If [[It's a Girl Thing (Lola Love) by Lisa Clark|It's a Girl Thing]] is the guide to what happens to you physically while you're growing up, Viva La Diva is its equivalent for the more emotional side of things, or as the subtitle goes, ''Everything you need to know about being fabulous''. I may have had some misgivings about the previous title, but I couldn't fault this one.  

For those of you who've not yet met Lola Love, here's the inside scoop. She is a very typical, perhaps slightly smarter than average teen, and if there is something she doesn't know, chances are one of her chicas, the fabulous Pink Ladies, can fill you in. The series which so far includes three books has tackled all those issues so super important to teens and tweens, from a [[It's a Girl Thing (Lola Love) by Lisa Clark|specific title]] about the lumps and bumps that come with adolescence to a longer, [[Think Pink by Lisa Clark|quasi-self-help title]] which covers everything from beating the blues to beating the bullies. ''Diva'' is another of the specific types, and is not very long, but packs a considerable amount into the 125 pages.

This is a fun book which starts off with the suggestion:

''So they haven't made a movie based on your life yet? That's no reason not to be a starlet in your very own film every single day…''

What follows is a sort of how-to guide to divadom, although Lola is quick to point out that her kinda diva is ''NOT the arrogant, foot stomping, ultra-demanding, hissy-fit throwing type'' but instead ''a real, sparkly-gorgeous, pink thinkin' diva'' instead.

The book is as interactive as a copy of ''Mizz'', that teen staple of a magazine with which the author is incidentally associated. There are quizzes to complete, lists to write, goals to set and questions to answer. In between these, the various sections offer great advice on how to deal with bad thoughts in yourself to how to be a good friend to others. The writing is casual and chatty and very un-teacher-like, but the important messages get across.

I think this book would appeal to your non-typical reader as well as the proper bookworms. It is as previously mentioned incredibly short, and there's not even text of all the pages it does have – think lots of colourful illustrations and the aforementioned interactive sheets padding it out. It's the sort of book you could read in an hour, but isn't really designed to be read like that, and there are plenty of places to stop and think and reflect as you go along. You could dip into and out of the book as required, and go back over various bits as the need arises. I think this book would be a great gift for a tween, especially during school holidays as it will give her something reasonably constructive with which to fill her days, or at least an afternoon or two.

Thanks go to the publishers for supplying this title. 

Older readers might prefer [[The Boy Book by Emily Lockhart|The Boy Book]], a novel with a similar sort of self-help focus.

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