The bestselling author of the Princess Diaries series turns to a different head of state in a comedy about a privileged but disaffected adolescent girl whose life undergoes a radical transformation when she instinctively jumps on a gunman, foiling his plan to assassinate the president. Samantha Madison, who dyes all her clothing black to show her high-minded solidarity with the hungry, the homeless, and the art-program–deprived, is anything but a heroic figure. The middle child in an overachieving Washington, D.C., family, Samantha is stuck between her pretty and popular older sister, Lucy, a cheerleader “whose primary concern . . . is not missing a single sale at Club Monaco” and her super-smart younger sister, Rebecca, who is so brilliant that she’s “practically an idiot savant.” Worse, Samantha is madly in love with Lucy’s boyfriend, Jack, an alienated, earring-wearing, aspiring artist who not so incidentally also happens to be a hunk. Written in the first person, Cabot’s strength is her heroine’s funny, authentic voice, though her utilization of trendy labels and extreme colloquial style may limit the material’s longevity. After saving the president’s life, Samantha is suddenly catapulted from nobody to national hero in the world at large and from social outcast to social arbiter in the microcosm of her school. Ambivalence over her burgeoning celebrity and mushrooming popularity, coupled with high-level political conflicts involving her new duties as the US teen ambassador to the UN and a budding but bumpy relationship with the first son, keeps the plot rolling, all the way to its satisfying, distinctively American conclusion. Great fun. (Fiction. 12-15)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-06-029469-8
Page Count: 256
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2002
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel,...
Adventure drags our heroine all over the map of fantasyland while giving her the opportunity to use her smarts.
Elisa—Princess Lucero-Elisa de Riqueza of Orovalle—has been chosen for Service since the day she was born, when a beam of holy light put a Godstone in her navel. She's a devout reader of holy books and is well-versed in the military strategy text Belleza Guerra, but she has been kept in ignorance of world affairs. With no warning, this fat, self-loathing princess is married off to a distant king and is embroiled in political and spiritual intrigue. War is coming, and perhaps only Elisa's Godstone—and knowledge from the Belleza Guerra—can save them. Elisa uses her untried strategic knowledge to always-good effect. With a character so smart that she doesn't have much to learn, body size is stereotypically substituted for character development. Elisa’s "mountainous" body shrivels away when she spends a month on forced march eating rat, and thus she is a better person. Still, it's wonderfully refreshing to see a heroine using her brain to win a war rather than strapping on a sword and charging into battle.
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel, reminiscent of Naomi Kritzer's Fires of the Faithful (2002), keeps this entry fresh. (Fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-06-202648-4
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
When Clara Luna, 14, visits rural Mexico for the summer to visit the paternal grandparents she has never met, she cannot know her trip will involve an emotional and spiritual journey into her family’s past and a deep connection to a rich heritage of which she was barely aware. Long estranged from his parents, Clara’s father had entered the U.S. illegally years before, subsequently becoming a successful business owner who never spoke about what he left behind. Clara’s journey into her grandmother’s history (told in alternating chapters with Clara’s own first-person narrative) and her discovery that she, like her grandmother and ancestors, has a gift for healing, awakens her to the simple, mystical joys of a rural lifestyle she comes to love and wholly embrace. Painfully aware of not fitting into suburban teen life in her native Maryland, Clara awakens to feeling alive in Mexico and realizes a sweet first love with Pedro, a charming goat herder. Beautifully written, this is filled with evocative language that is rich in imagery and nuance and speaks to the connections that bind us all. Add a thrilling adventure and all the makings of an entrancing read are here. (glossaries) (Fiction. 12-14)
Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2006
ISBN: 0-385-73343-7
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2006
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
