Clark continues Courtney’s saga (Truth or Dairy, 2000) as she endures her “freshperson” fall semester at Cornwall Falls College, Wisconsin. Diary format lets readers revel in the teen-speak of her “tragic” circumstances: charmed away from her native Colorado by a generous financial-aid package, Courtney is a vegan trapped 1,000 miles from the nearest fruit smoothie. Nobody understands the torment of being in a long-distance relationship with perfect boyfriend Grant. As if anybody could understand the spirit-crushing experience of working for minimum wage at the fast-food chain, The Bagle Finagle. That Courtney is self-involved would be an understatement, but the light-hearted tone and the recognizable archetypes are just humorous enough to keep the pages turning. Clark has a gifted ear for language and an eye for the details of current teenage trends. Late-adolescent behavior is wickedly revealed as Courtney begins to get involved with school activities such as the Campus Badicals who are protesting the initials of the school. As the semester progresses, she begins to discover that first impressions are not always the most reliable way to choose friends—especially when her kindred spirit soulmate turns out to be someone completely different and her bovine-loving roommate ditches her boyfriend to save Courtney from spending Thanksgiving alone in the dorm. A hoot. (Fiction. 12-14)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-06-029525-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
paper 1-55885-259-X A cardboard romance enlivened slightly by its Cuban-American milieu. Maggie is smart and focused; she wants to be a nurse, as her mother is, and scarcely recalls her father, who died just out of medical school when she was a baby. Maggie and her best friend, Susie, live in Miami; they are typical teenagers whose Cuban background is evident in their use of Spanglish and in family customs and food. Maggie pines for golden jock Zach, the grandson of an elderly woman, Mrs. Maxwell, whom she helps around the house; her crush so blinds her that she refuses to see that Zach is careless of his grandmother’s needs and feelings, and dismissive of Maggie’s heritage. In a subplot, Susie sets Maggie up with Justin, her boyfriend Carlos’s best friend. Standard teen temptations are created and demolished: Justin barely escapes getting into a fight; Carlos pressures Susie for sex so she breaks up with him. A climactic Christmas dinner with Zach’s family, where Maggie is Mrs. Maxwell’s guest because her own mother has to work, convinces her of Zach’s true nature. Everything’s a little too easy and neat, but Maggie’s veering from sensible to silly will comfort teenagers who do the same. (Fiction. 12-14)
Pub Date: Dec. 30, 1998
ISBN: 1-55885-258-1
Page Count: 182
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1998
BOOK REVIEW
From Cooney (The Voice on the Radio, 1996, etc.), a hard look at the tacit, unacknowledged racism that lurks beneath the surface of an affluent, supposedly enlightened community. Macey loves her Connecticut town. Her grandparents, Papa and Nana, provide a home for her during the frequent absences of her upwardly mobile parents; school and friends are great; and handsome Austin is taking a flattering interest in her. The only thing that worries her is the reaction she gets from everyone she asks about a mysterious fire in 1959 that destroyed a local barn, and a renovated apartment within it, where a black teacher lived. When Macey is assigned community service painting an inner- city church, she is paired with a parishioner, Venita, and they bond, immediately. That day, however, an arsonist sets fire to the church, and they and others are almost killed. Macey is shocked at the viciousness of the act, and more curious about the long-ago fire near her home. When Venita is killed trying to protect a little girl from a gang, Macey grieves and begins to question seriously the chasm of hate between blacks and whites. The truth about the 1959 fire, which was deliberately set and witnessed by those closest to her, nearly destroys her. This thought-provoking story has a powerful message, effortlessly woven into the ordinary trappings of a teenager’s life. Cooney allows for no cozy ending; as Macey faces what racism has done to her community, readers will question what it has done to theirs. (Fiction. 12-14)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-385-32318-2
Page Count: 230
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1998
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