Ratings

Content Ratings based on a 0-5 scale where
0 = no objectionable content and
5 = an excessive or disturbing level of content

Guide to Rating System

LANGUAGE

VIOLENCE

SEXUAL CONTENT

ADULT THEMES

Ratings Explanation

Language:  Some profanity.

Sexual Content:  Typical 12-yr-old girl talk of kissing boys.  Marylin has a crush on her teacher, Mr. Kertzner, who has a crush on Marylin’s newly-divorced aunt.  At Marylin’s first boy-girl party, the kids play spin-the-bottle and must kiss whomever the bottle winds up pointing to.  Marylin wonders what it would be like to kiss so-and-so, etc.  Andrew asks Kate to “go” with him.

Adult Themes:  Kate’s dad suffers a heart attack.  Talk of Flannery hanging out with friends who smoke.  The girls have a seance at a slumber party.  Marylin’s parents are getting divorced.

Synopsis

Kate and Marylin are eleven years old and have been best friends for as long as they can remember.  But when a new girl named Flannery moves into the neighborhood and threatens to come between the two, their perfect friendship is put to the test.  Suddenly Marylin is thinking about cheerleader tryouts and boys, while Kate is still thinking about catching fireflies and baking cookies.  When Flannery chooses Marylin for her new BFF,  Kate is snubbed and begins to sit with the “nerdy” kids at lunch.  She meets Paisley, an off-beat world traveler who doesn’t seem to care what anybody thinks of her, even when she has a piece of food stuck to her shirt.  Kate suddenly sees the nice boy Andrew in a whole new light–it is she, not Marylin, who finds herself with a boyfriend.  Meanwhile, when Marylin makes the cheer squad and Flannery does not, it’s Marylin’s turn to be snubbed.  Marylin finds out that her parents are getting divorced and wishes she could talk to Kate about it, but now that she is part of the in-crowd, will she have the courage to reach out to Kate and renew their friendship?

I viewed this book from two angles, the first being that it portrays somewhat accurately the ups and downs of preteen life and all of its insecurities, peer pressure, and backbiting.  The second, however, is that I struggled to finish it because of these issues and a trite story line.  Was it because I’m not eleven anymore and no longer concerned with these problems?  I doubt it, but there may be some schoolgirls out there who see themselves in the characters and can relate.  Not on my “must-read” list, but an innocuous read; a pre-cursor to typical teenage romance novels.

©2010 The Literate Mother