Cherry Money Baby
Gr 9 Up–Foul-mouthed, short-tempered Cherry Kerrigan, 17, knows exactly what she wants from life. She's in love with the boy next door and plans to marry him as soon as she's through with high school. Her father has higher hopes for her; he wants her to go to college and rise above their trailer-park lifestyle. After her town's cola plant gets turned into a movie set, Cherry winds up performing the Heimlich maneuver on the star. Her father is completely supportive of the resulting unlikely friendship between his daughter and the British starlet. Ardelia Deen, raised amid the British aristocracy, finds Cherry's straightforward approach to life refreshing. She hires Cherry to help her in the search for a surrogate mother for her child. Cherry gets inevitably drawn into the lifestyle of the rich and famous and begins to question her own aspirations as Ardelia demands increasing amounts of her time. Things come to a head when Cherry's family loses everything after her weed-smoking brother, who is supposed to be in her care, accidentally burns down their trailer. Riddled with guilt, she considers Ardelia's offer of $250,000 to be the one to carry her child. At Ardelia's mansion in England, however, events force Cherry to rethink the direction her life is taking. Cusick has created an unlikely role model in sassy Cherry and added generous amounts of humor to her story.  –Cary Frostick, Mary Riley Styles Public Library, Falls Church, VAα(c) Copyright 2013.  Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc.  No redistribution permitted.