Category: Riot Grrrl!

All of Ruby Crane’s dreams are coming true. At just fifteen, she has sold her first novel, and has as a result traded her mousy brown locks for blown-out platinum waves, caught the romantic attention of sexy upperclassman and suggestively named Jordan Lush, and squashed the ego of every mean girl in her Manhattan high school who ever shot her a glare. Ruby is on top of the world—until she isn’t. All it takes is one reporter to whisper the word every writer fears: plagiarism, and Ruby is hightailing it up north to lick her wounds and mourn the loss of Jordan with her eccentric New Age aunt in the tiny town of Whispering Oaks. Ruby swears she will never WRITE or READ another word ever again. She even goes so far as to change her name and chop off her hair. But she discovers its’ not that easy turning her back on her lifelong passion for books, especially after crush-worthy local boy Jacob turns out to be a classics-spouting hottie who can utter lines from Shakespeare and Chaucer at the drop of a hat. Ruby’s summer-in-hiding turns out to be a book-worthy adventure, including investigating a hundred year old romantic ghost story and organizing a protest to keep open a local bookstore. But through it all, the question remains: DID Ruby plagiarise her novel? And if she did, will she ever have the courage to face up to what she’s done and accept the consequences? Clearly based in part on the plagiarism controversy surrounding real-life seventeen year old author Kaavya Viswanathan’s first novel, Kiss My Book is a delicious little paperback original with a chewy moral center that teens can gnaw on long after they finish the story. Michaels is clearly in love with literature, which comes through loud and clear with Ruby’s many mentions of her fav titles. So if you like books about books, then you need Kiss My Book!

Sixteen-year-old Tessa gets smacked in the head with an orange volleyball during gym class and suddenly she’s airborn, moving toward that bright light in the sky, which bears a striking resemblance to the local mall. It makes sense that Tessa’s heaven would look like the mall, since that’s where she experienced most of the seminal moments of her life: buying her first bra, scoring her lucky red t-shirt, trying on prom dresses. But it’s also where she shoplifted, cheated, and lied to friends. When Tessa takes a trip to the sweet mall hereafter, she is forced to deal with the fact that she hasn’t always been the nicest person. Can this committed mall rat change her wicked ways? Or is she doomed to wander the wide waxed corridors of heaven forever? While Tessa isn’t always a character you can root for, she is always one you can empathize with. Wendy Mass’s sharply observed verse novel looks a lot like a winner. Ride this escalator all the way to the top!

When Steph Landry discovers a dusty old self-help book in a friend’s attic called How to be Popular, she believes she’s found the answer to all her problems. Ever since 6th grade, when she accidentally spilled a Big Red Super Big Gulp on Queen Bee Lauren Moffat’s white D&G skirt, Steph has been branded as a loser. Lauren has even gone as far as to make the whole school refer to any mistake made as “pulling a Steph.” Now it’s the beginning of junior year, and Steph is determined to make a new start. With a little help from “the Book,” her kindly (and wealthy) grandpa, who loans her enough money for a new wardrobe, and a winning attitude, Steph manages to create and organize a successful school fundraiser, woo away Lauren’s boyfriend, and collect a new batch of cool friends, all in the first week of school! But when she ends up alienating all her old friends, (especially Jason, her BFF, and possibly more) and her new crowd puts pressure on her to host a kegger on her grandpa’s property, Steph has to decide if being popular is really worth all the hassle! Using her trademark gentle humor and John Hughes-like understanding of teen angst, Meg Cabot has penned yet another enjoyable chick lit that reads quickly and goes down easy.

Annabel Greene’s life looks perfect. She has loving parents, a gorgeous house, and two beautiful older sisters who work with her in a local modeling agency. Her best friend Sophie, rules the school as Queen Bee Extreme, and Annabel goes along for the ride to all the best parties with all the coolest people. But looks can be deceiving. Annabel hates modeling and wants to quit, but doesn’t want to upset her depression-prone mom. One of her perfect older sisters has an eating disorder. And Sophie dumped Annabel hard last year after accusing her of trying to hook up with Sophie’s boyfriend. Annabel stuffs it all down, hoping that if she doesn’t acknowledge what her perfect life has become, it will all go away. Enter indie-music outsider Owen Armstrong. Owen gives Annabel a ride home from school after a particularly nasty Sophie attack, and slowly begins to pull Annabel out of her shell with his brassy, opinionated personality. There’s only one problem. Owen is a truth-teller. And the last thing Annabel wants to tell, or hear, is the truth. Slow, thoughtful, and thought-provoking like all of Sarah Dessen’s marvelous chick lit, Just Listen is a quiet story of a girl in crisis who learns that life is about taking charge even when it seems like you have lost all control.

What if King Arthur, his lady Guinevere, and his best friend Lancelot were reincarnated as teenagers in an affluent suburb of Washington D.C.? And what if all the drama of Camelot was being played out again in the hallways of Avalon High, where new student Elaine arrives just in time to fall for Arthur (known in this life as Will) and stop the forces of darkness from destroying him again? Is Will really the latest version of the mythical ruler? Elaine doesn’t believe it, but almost against her will, she is slowly pulled into the timeless story of love, jealousy, and betrayal and given her role to play. Elaine may think she’s only helping a new friend, but she just may be saving all of mankind! Meg Cabot re-casts the Arthurian legend with quarterbacks and cheerleaders, class presidents and track stars, and the result is one funny, romantic romp that will leave readers believing that heroes really can rise again and you don’t have to be a princess to win the heart of a king!

Laura Truman, Jace Torres and Chloe Thomas were best friends all through junior high. Then, high school happened, and they grew apart. Now, it’s time for their senior prom, and Laura wants to bring the three”T’s” together again for old times sake. There’s only one problem: the T’s couldn’t be further apart in the high school social strata. Laura’s a popular beauty, Jace is an accomplished athlete, and Chloe is, well, just Chloe. But when Laura decides to mobilize, nothing stands in her way, not even the fact that Chloe doesn’t have the remotest possibility of snagging a date. Somehow, someway, with lots of miscommunications, coy conversations, and phone calls to total strangers, Laura not only gets Chloe a date, but also plans and manages to pull off the perfect prom night for everyone – except herself. Full of hilarious dialogue, romantic tension, and back-stabbing high school politics, this modern comedy of manners will resound with anyone who a) went to prom, b) skipped prom, c) went and wished they didn’t, or d) skipped it and wished they went.

Victoria doesn’t believe in boys. They just exist to break your heart. That’s why she’s adopted the completely boy-proof persona of her fav sci-fi movie star, Egg. Egg is bad, bald, and tougher than nails, so when Victoria is wearing her Egg cloak, she feels sufficiently protected from the slings and arrows of that troublemaker Cupid. That is, until just the right boy comes along with the ability to crack Egg’s shell wide open…yes, this is that “girl meets boy, girl hates boy, then girl crushes on boy” book. But with a fun twist—unlike many of the pink-lipsticked gossip gurls in bookstores these days, Victoria is a science fiction geek with a professional movie monster maker for a dad, and a failed scream queen actress for a mom. This makes for all sorts of interesting secondary situations that add to Victoria’s boy hating angst. Boy Proof is just different enough to draw your attention away from those 50 thousand other pastel-jacketed teen chick lit books vying for your allowance dollars.

High school senior Ashley Hannigan isn’t anybody’s idea of a princess. She’s just a normal girl from a working class family in Philly, with too many brothers and not enough privacy. Her dad and brothers decorate the house according to the sports season, while her mom drives a city bus and thinks that Madonna’s Like A Virgin phase was, and still is, high fashion. Ashley just wants to graduate and get the hell out of her parent’s crowded house. So how does this blue-collar Cinderella end up not only with the requisite pink dress and “fairy” godmother,(her best friend’s Russian immigrant grandma, who doesn’t speak English) but also being in charge of the entire senior prom?! Well, it’s not easy, and it’s not magic, either! Written in response to readers asking for a story about a “regular girl” who isn’t super rich or a wannabe pop princess, Laurie Anderson’s Prom is a well-crafted tale of a girl who is neither victim or wonder. Just like a girl you know—or are.