The List by Siobhan Vivian

Nobody knows who writes "The List" each year. The Tradition has been passed on for years. The week before Homecoming "The List" appears with the names of the ugliest and the prettiest girls in each grade. Nobody has ever claimed to have written "The List." Years before the seal of the school was stolen and is used to officially emboss "The List." Each year it is passed on to someone else in secret. That person doesn't know who was the list maker before them, but then it is their turn to make "The List."

For the 8 girls on The List life changes dramatically during the week before Homecoming. This year Bridget Honeycutt is chosen as The Prettiest for the junior class. Immediately the pressure is on Bridget to look her best. This manifests in an eating disorder that she thought had been put behind her over the summer. But she is determined to fit into that smaller dress size by the end of the week. Jennifer Briggis becomes the first four-peat girl as ugliest. Her former best friend Margo was chosen as prettiest which puts her in the top running for Homecoming Queen. When Sarah finds her name on the ugliest list she is determined to fight back. She decides to not bathe for the entire week much to the disgust of the student body that have to be in classes with her. Each girl handles their fame or rejection in her own way, unfortunately letting The List change them whether for positive or negative. With one girl determined that this will be the last List EVER.

My Thoughts:

There were a few things that I disliked about this story. The cursing, the sexual situations, and the drinking/smoking. BUT, I think the story brought out a lot of how fragile young adult self-image can be. And then to have their flaws or assets brought out in public like "The List," how damaging it can be even to the most put-together teen. This was not a "feel-good" story, it didn't end with everyone experiencing their "happily ever after." High school is messy, egos and self-image are fragile and the author was able to show that in this story. And there were moments when friendships and relationships weathered the storm which made the story more palatable for me.

Made to Crave For Young Women by Lysa TerKeurst and Shaunti Feldhahn

From the press release:

Made to Crave For Young Women is modeled after TerKeurst's bestselling adult book, Made to Crave. In this new edition, the authors expand beyond the food-related focus of the original, and into all the other areas of craving shared by so many teenage girls. The authors acknowledge that the desire to make wrong choices is common and that most of us share such temptations. But, as TerKeurst writes, "Whether we are talking about guys, friends, food, body image, new clothes, or anything else we abuse to try to fill ourselves, nothing in this world can ever fill us like God's portion."

My Thoughts:

The book discusses three types of cravings--physical, material, and emotional. Each section of the book takes one of these cravings and discusses where we can fall into temptation and sin when we have wrong thinking about each subject. At the end of each chapter is a "takeaway" summary of what was discussed in the chapter. Also there is an action plan that encourages girls to keep a journal and challenges them to act on what they have learned in each chapter. Made To Crave for young women encourages girls to fill their lives with a loving Heavenly Father instead of filling their cravings with physical, material or emotional things. Filled with scriptures, encouragement and practical advice Made To Crave For Young Women can be used as a devotional or study group book. I know I will be passing my copy on to my nieces.

Thanks to Zondervan for my copy for review.

Pies & Prejudice by Heather Vogel Frederick

This time around the Mother-Daughter Book Club explore Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. It is the perfect time for them to do this with Emma and her family living in England(right in the middle of Jane Austen country) for a year. Emma and her mom are able to participate in the book club via the internet.

Cassidy, still the perpetual tomboy has a full plate. She plays hockey for a Division I girls league, She starts a club for little girls called "Chicks with Sticks" to train them how to become ice hockey players, and then as a favor to Mrs. Bergson(who was able to get her time on the ice for Chicks with Sticks) she agrees to practice ice dancing with Tristan(whose family have house-swapped with Emma's family). Sparks fly between Tristan and Cassidy from the time they meet.

Megan loves fashion. She notices everyone's fashion faux pas and so decides that she will start a blog that she entitles Fashionista Jane going along with the theme of Jane Austen. The blog ultimately gets the girls into trouble, but it is fun and snarky!

Jess also has a lot going on in her life. She is feeling stressed about not having a career goal in mind when all of the other girls seem to know what they would like to do with their lives. She thinks that she would love to do something with music, she has the opportunity to nurse a wounded fox back to health and as always Emma's brother Darcy can always make her heart pound. Will Darcy ever notice her, or will he always see her as just one of his sister's friends?

The girls put together a business of baking pies and other treats in an effort to raise money to bring Emma home for a visit during spring break. They name their business "Pies and Prejudice" and it becomes quite successful. Of course not everything is all roses in the story. The girls have a new nemesis and new struggles throughout the year. It is fun to see how relationships develop and how supportive they are of each other. This is turning out to be one of my favorite series!