Ready or Not: An All-American Girl Novel
Grade 9 Up–Samantha Madison is back. She is still a semi-celebrity for saving the president's life and she is still dating his son. She is faced with a huge dilemma when it appears that she not only condemns the president's new Return to Family policy, but also implies that she has slept with David. The ensuing consequences and Samantha's conflicted feelings about sex provide drama. A subplot involves Lucy, Samantha's older sister, falling for her nerdy math tutor, who does not return her feelings. This is a surprisingly political book with a positive attitude about sex. The themes are more mature than those of The Princess Diaries series. Samantha writes frequent top-10 lists, such as Top ten things that suck about being the sister of the most popular girl in school. Teen sexuality and honesty about protection, awkwardness, and masturbation are handled in a humorous and sensitive manner. The characters are real, witty, and relatable, and the author has an ear for teen dialogue. Some more conservative areas and school libraries might give pause, but the book is funny, smart, well paced, and honest.–Amy Patrick, New York Public LibraryCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.