Review: Great YA book
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 19, 2013
I really liked this YA story.  It seemed to have a lot of accurate teenage emotion without being too serious.  The action was just the right amount to keep the reader engrossed.  The main character is Tabitha and she finds herself having to stay longer with her grandmother than she thought.  She is used to traveling the world with her mom who is an archaeologist.  She has never attended school, instead the world has been her classroom.  Now she finds herself having to attend high school for the first time.  She has no idea how to relate to the beasts known as teenagers.  Her first week of school is a disaster. She enters the building believing the worst about kids her own age and some of her classmates don't disappoint which reinforce her ideas.  However, she does find a friend in Becky, who, as the reader learns, has secrets of her own. Tabitha also decides Alex is the total hottie who is worth getting to know and enters the strange world of flirting.  Too bad he is dating the girl, who threw her in cheerleading practice.  Yes I said cheerleading practice.  She finds herself having to join the squad which was so not her idea.  She is hoping to get dismissed from the team when she protects herself from Alex's ex.  Unfortunately she finds herself stuck and has to make the best of it.  Her experience at school begins to get better when she is completely lost in her math class and Alex becomes her tutor.  However, She wants to kill her mom for dumping her in this situation.Once she starts getting used to school and normal everyday life as a teenager, her mom's world invades her new found life.  Shocking secrets come out which changes Tabitha's life forever.  Danger also emerges when her mom sends her a Japanese artifact.  She enters a fact finding mission which leads her to Chicago with Becky.  Tabitha also encounters ninjas as she continues the quest of survival as a teenager.  Yes I said ninjas.  She was a bit surprised herself.  There are lots of twists and turns with all the secrets coming to light and Tabitha's ordeal with fitting in.  I would definitely recommend this book.  In fact I am going to make this a book of the week for my students.  They will love it I'm sure.  I give this a 5 books out of 5.