My Best Friend, Maybe

Carter, Caela. My Best Friend, Maybe. Bloomsbury USA Childrens, 2014.

Colette and Sadie used to be best friends, but right before high school Sadie quit hanging out with Colette. Colette busied herself with being the Perfect Daughter - getting good grades, dating a nice boy from her church, pleasing her parents. Out of the blue, Sadie asks Colette to join her family for a trip to Greece. Colette decides to go, but spends much of the trip confused. Why does Sadie want to be with her all of a sudden after abandoning her so long ago?

Finally, a YA novel with a religious family that's portrayed realistically. Colette is constantly prodded by her mother not to be prideful, not to be selfish, etc. Her mom sends Colette numerous passive-aggressive emails while she's in Greece, each containing a Bible verse the significance of which is initially lost on Colette. Colette and her boyfriend both "fake perfect" in front of each other to please each other and each finds out that the other is just a perfectly flawed human being. The characters were believable and real, right down to Colette's mom's conversation with Sadie. Colette and Sadie do get their Disney-esque ending, but that doesn't make the story less satisfying. Even though I am not personally a fan of chick lit, I did enjoy this particular story.

Recommended for: fans of romance/chick lit
Red Flags: underage drinking, discussion of underage sex, Collete's mom tells Sadie that Sadie is going to hell because Sadie is a lesbian
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

Read-Alikes: Everything Changes, Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel, No One Needs to Know

Don't Even Think About It

Mylnowski, Sarah. Don't Even Think About It. Delacorte Press, 2014

Homeroom 10B all received their flu vaccinations on the same day. The next day many of them also began hearing other people's thoughts. This story is their collective voice, telling what they chose to do with their new powers.

Imagine that the planet Betazoid was completely inhabited by cheerleaders or other stereotypically popular but flaky females. Apparently with great power comes great ... boyfriend potential. The potential behind this - a chick lit book with an actual plot - was amazing, but it just didn't live up to it at all.

Recommended for: fans of chick lit, teens
Red Flags: imagine you can hear the innermost thoughts of a bunch of teens ... red flags abound
Overall Rating: 2/5 stars

Everything Leads to You

LaCour, Nina. Everything Leads to You. Dutton Juvenile, 2014.

Emi works on set designs in Hollywood, and on a hunt to find just the right pieces for a particular set, she finds a letter from a famous actor. This mystery begs to be solved, so she spends time tracking down people and making connections while still working on her set design. And she tries not to start dating the same girl again who has broken her heart over and over.

This wasn't a bad book, but it's weird to read about the uber-privileged. Not many teens get to work on actual movie sets, and most of them go to school instead of driving around to actors' estate sales to purchase set pieces. That facet lead an air of unreality to this particular story, although the actual plot - a girl who tries to not date the same girl who's already broken her heart - was a good one. This would be a good book for fans of chick lit.

Recommended for: teens
Red Flags: none
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

My Basmati Bat Mitzvah

Freedman, Paula. My Basmati Bat Mitzvah. 2013.

Tara Feinstein is preparing for her bat mitzvah.  She's trying to decide what she believes, in addition to trying to honor both her Jewish and her Indian heritage.  Meanwhile, she's not sure if her best friend Ben likes her as a friend or is interested in something more.

This was a typical chick-lit story, focusing on a lot of small struggles instead of some major plot point. Tara isn't sure what all she believes, and she's concerned about making promises through her bat mitzvah or committing to a belief system that she doesn't ascribe to.  She gets in trouble with her friends, watches her family interact and react to each other, and in the end decides that it's okay to live with the questions she has about her faith and her heritage. I enjoyed reading about both the Jewish and Indian cultures through this book, and I know it will be popular in my library.

Recommended for: tweens, especially girls
Red Flags: the girls get arrested for shoplifting; one of Tara's friends has a disorder where she pulls out her hair
Overall Rating:3/5 stars

Model Misfit

Smale, Holly. Model Misfit. Harper Collins, 2013.

Harriet is a geek and also a model, so she is glad for the break from her normal life when she is sent to Japan for a modeling job. But when every one of her shoots is sabotaged, her boss begins to wonder if Harriet is the right girl for her campaign. Harriet has to try to navigate a culture unfamiliar to her while rescuing herself and her job from forces unknown.

This book was hilarious in spite of the fact that it's clearly a chick lit book. Harriet's grandmother is absolutely ridiculous, and between her and Harriet's agent there are enough humorous moments to offset the tension from all the modeling mishaps. I could definitely sell my 7th/8th grade girls on this book.

Recommended for: tweens and teens; fans of chick lit
Red Flags: none
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

Just One Day

Forman, Gayle. Just One Day. Dutton, 2013. 

Allyson is a good girl whose life has been controlled by her mother, who has planned all of her classes and extracurricular activities. Amazingly, Allyson's mom allows her to go on an educational tour of Europe.  While in London, Allyson meets a boy at a rogue Shakespeare event and decides to spend the next day with him in Paris.  She spends an excellent day with him touring Paris and spends the night with him, only to panic the next morning when he's gone.

For the next year, Allyson pines away for her beloved Willem. By the time summer arrives, she has decided to take charge of her own life, changing her college major and planning to return to Paris to find Willem.  After some amazing adventures, Allyson travels to Willem's hometown and sees him ... with another girl.  She's been warned that his adventure with her was just a one-day thing, that he went through girls faster than anyone can keep up with, but she is still convinced that things will be different when he sees her again.

This book seemed very similar to The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things or Ask the Passengers. The protagonist begins the story being totally controlled by her mother's dreams. Also she has no backbone. But she changes throughout the story, and by the end she is becoming her own person instead of the person her parents want her to be. I ended up enjoying this book more than I thought I would, until the very end of the story. I hate, hate, HATED the ending. The ending cancelled out all the wonderful growth and change I'd seen in the main character.  Argh.

Nonetheless, it was a lovely story.  If you do read it, I recommend stopping before you hit the last three pages.  The rest of the story is excellent. 

Fat Cat

Brande, Robin. Fat Cat. Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2009.

Cat is in a very competitive science class this year, and she has to create a research project based on a random photo she chooses from the teacher's folder. Rather than grabbing a picture of plants or insects, the things Cat has been interested in, she ends up with a picture of early humans. She decides to begin her research by mirroring, as closely as possible, how early humans lived and ate: she gives up her cell phone, her television, and her car, as well as chips, soda, and candy bars. As her project progresses and her body responds to all the changes, other people begin to notice the difference in Cat. And suddenly she has to decide how to respond to all the attention she is receiving, especially from Matt, whom she was friends with until 7th grade and has hated since then.

This book was a quick, entertaining read. I finished it in just a few hours. I enjoyed the science-based plot, like I did in Brande's Evolution, Me, and Other Freaks of Nature. What I didn't enjoy was the fact that we know from the first chapter that there is something going on between Cat and Matt, but (like Matt) we are clueless about the details until the end of the book. Overall, though, this was a good book. I would recommend it to those who enjoyed Brande's other book, as well as readers who enjoyed Going Vintage.

Shift

Bailey, Em. Shift. Egmont USA, 2012.

Olive has been hospitalized for an unnamed mental illness, and now she has returned to school. She takes her meds, goes to class, tries to stay out of trouble. She spends a lot of time with her friend Ami. One day a new girl shows up at school, and there's something strange about her. Olive decides Miranda (the new girl) is a shape-shifter who basically sucks the personality and life out of a person. Miranda begins following Katie, the most popular girl, and soon Katie becomes really sick while Miranda takes Katie's boyfriend, Katie's followers, and eventually Katie's life. But no one believes Olive. They just adjust her meds and tell her to face her fears. Then Miranda turns her attention to Olive, and soon Olive feels the life draining out of her...

That description makes this book sound more interesting than it was. It was okay at the beginning, even with the creepy shape-shifting thing going on. About halfway through the book we discover that Ami is just a figment of Olive's imagination. Then Katie dies, and Miranda sics herself onto Olive. At that point I quit caring about what happened in this story. The thriller part of it wasn't thrilling enough, and the contemporary "chick lit" part of it wasn't realistic enough. It was just a weird mishmash of genres and it didn't really work for me.

This book might work for readers who like both thrillers and contemporary fiction, or fans of chick lit who want to break out of their typical genre. It does discuss mental illness, but doesn't give enough descriptions or information to be truly helpful.

Does My Head Look Big in This?

Abdel-Fattah, Randa. Does My Head Look Big in This? Orchard Books, 2007.

Amal is a teenage girl. Amal is a private school student. Amal is an Australian citizen. And Amal is Muslim. She decides that she is ready to wear the hijab, headscarf, full-time, even to her private school and out in public, etc.  Her parents are concerned that she's not ready to deal with all of the reactions of those around her.   This book allows the reader to see a glimpse into the life of a Muslim family and also to watch Amal's reactions to those who react to her appearance.

I really enjoyed this book.  Yes, it is chick lit, in that the girls are focused on shopping and makeup and boys, but it gets a bit deeper than that when we watch Amal deal with her peers, the people on her bus, and her crotchety old neighbor.  Amal actually does change for the better throughout the book, and I was glad for a book with a Muslim teen as the protagonist.

Between You & Me

Calin, Marisa. Between You and Me. Bloomsbury, 2012.

This is the Goodreads blurb about this book: "Phyre knows there is something life-changing about her new drama teacher, Mia, from the moment they meet. As Phyre rehearses for the school play, she comes to realize that the unrequited feelings she has for Mia go deeper than she’s ever experienced. Especially with a teacher. Or a woman. All the while, Phyre’s best friend—addressed throughout the story in the second person, as "you"—stands by, ready to help Phyre make sense of her feelings. But just as Mia doesn’t understand what Phyre feels, Phyre can’t fathom the depth of her best friend’s feelings . . . until it’s almost too late for a happy ending. Characters come to life through the innovative screenplay format of this dazzling debut, and unanswered questions—is "you" male or female?—will have readers talking."

Here's my take on this book:

1. I was intrigued by the premise.  An LGBT YA book with the teen protagonist crushing on a teacher. It sounded interesting (as long as it didn't get creepy - which it didn't).  A focus on drama/theater high school groups. It sounded good, and sounded like it would reach a new audience, the same way Beautiful Music for Ugly Children did with its emphasis on music and radio shows.

2.  I hated, really hated the format. I don't think in screenplays, so it's hard to read one. Also, the protagonist spoke to the reader, so there's lots of "you" going on, but she referred to herself as "me," so I'm the "you" reading what "me" said, but I'm not "me."  If that sentence confused you, try 242 pages of that.

Also, I checked with my better half, who has a degree in theater performance, and she said that the screenplay isn't formatted correctly.  And interspersed with the screenplay are bits of narration that sound like a normal novel (except for the second person craziness). So it's like a screenplay that wants to be a novel that wants to be an in-your-face real-time conversation.  No wonder I was unimpressed.

The story concept is a good one, but I'm not sold on the execution.

The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things

Mackler, Carolyn.  The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things. Candlewick, 2003.

Fifteen-year-old Virginia Shreves has a larger-than-average body and a plus-size inferiority complex. She lives for television, scarfs junk food, and follows her self-made "Fat Girl Code of Conduct." Her best friend has just moved to Walla Walla. Her new companion, Froggy Welsh IV, has just succeeded in getting his hand up her shirt, and she lives in fear that he’ll look underneath. Then there are the other Shreves: Mom, the successful psychologist and exercise fiend; Dad, a top executive who ogles thin women on TV; and older siblings Anais and Byron, both of them slim and brilliant. Delete Virginia, and the Shreves would be a picture-perfect family. Or so she’s convinced. And then a shocking phone call changes everything. Virginia has to decide whether to help her mother keep her family's perfect image or to begin living for herself.

I started out not liking this book.  Virginia is bossed around by her "perfect" family; she has no friends; she eats to comfort herself.  Her mother is an adolescent psychologist and should, therefore, be a great mom to a teenager, but she's way too concerned about the family's image to be a real parent.  And Virginia has NO backbone.  I only kept reading because 1) I was in the car, listening to the audio version on a longish commute to work, and 2) the narrator is excellent.  I mean, really excellent.

Early on in the book, Perfect Brother Byron gets kicked out of college for date rape and is sent home.  He doesn't get punished; in fact, no one in the family talks about "the incident" at all. He even gets to go to a Yankees playoffs game with his dad.  He is given permission to move to France for the rest of the semester ... it's like his family just wants to sweep the whole thing under the rug.  Meanwhile, Virginia is traumatized by the whole thing and has nowhere to turn because mentioning what's bothering her will ruin the family's reputation.  Argh.

Around Thanksgiving, things change and the story gets much better.  Virginia develops a backbone, first of all, and starts being herself.  And with that backbone comes some self-confidence.  And then she makes friends. And things are better.  My favorite part (aside from the hair dye incident) is when Virginia's dad says something like, "It looks like you've slimmed down," and her response is, "Dad, I don't like it when you talk about my body.  It's not yours to discuss."  Wahoo! 

I thought I wouldn't like this book, but I did.  If you get a chance, try the audio version. :)

52 Reasons to Hate My Father

Brody, Jessica. 52 Reasons to Hate My Father. Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 2012.

Lexington Larrabee is a spoiled brat. Her family is beyond rich, and Lexi stands to inherit $25 million dollars the day she turns 18. However, her father has been less than impressed with her behavior, so he gives her a task to complete before she receives her trust fund: for one year she will work 52 low-paying jobs, and she must complete every one of them in order to get her money.

I didn't expect to like this book. I usually hate stories about spoiled brats, and the main character in this story could fit right in with the Gossip Girls. But she changes, and that's what makes this story worth reading. Her super-rich, super-busy, always absent father changes, too. This book is a quick, enjoyable read and was definitely worth the time I spent on it.