Prom - Softcover

Laurie Halse Anderson

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0340854650 ISBN 13: 9780340854655

Publisher: Hodder Childrens Book, 2005

Synopsis

Ashley couldn't care less about the prom - but when disaster strikes and she finds herself drawn in to organising it, she discovers a little about getting things done and as well as rather a lot about herself. Everyone's excited about the prom except Ashley, who couldn't care less. She's too busy worrying about her crazy family and TJ, her flaky boyfriend, who wants them to move in together after graduation but just doesn't seem to around when she needs him. But when disaster strikes the prom committee, somehow Ashley gets roped into helping save the evening. And she finds herself learning quite a lot about organising a prom - as well as learning little more about herself.

About this title

Review:

Ages 12 and up. Who would have thought the author of the gritty classic Speak had a gift for comedy? Here she demonstrates her comedic talent in the warm and witty story of Ashley, who is definitely not a prom-type person, and her best friend Nat, who lives for the prom. When the math teacher disappears with the funds just eleven days before the dance, determined and organized Nat goes into high gear to find alternative ways to make the prom happen and drags an unwilling Ashley into the flurry of urgent details.

Ashley has enough problems in her life already, starting with the complexities of her crowded but loving working class family -- her extremely pregnant mother and her three exuberant and prom-crazy aunts, and her cab-driving father and three younger brothers, who think nothing of happily trashing the kitchen in a game of hot dog baseball. Then there’s Mr. Gilroy, the evil vice principal of discipline, who has Ashley on endless detention, her awful job at EZ-CHEEZ-E, where she has trouble seeing the customers through the eyeholes of her rat costume, and her good-looking but lowlife boyfriend TJ, who wants her to join him in a future as depressing as the dank one-room apartment he has so proudly rented for them. Not to speak of Nat’s loony grandmother, who wears her red bathing cap even when she’s not doing the backstroke in a wading pool, babbles at Ashley in Russian, and spits on the floor to show her disapproval.

But in the end it’s grandma with her skill at baking (pastries to bribe the custodians) and sewing (a magical prom dress) who saves both the prom and Ashley’s belief in herself and her future in this delightful and heartfelt novel. --Patty Campbell

About the Author:

Laurie Halse Anderson grew up in Syracuse, New York, and now lives in Pennsylvania with her two daughters. The author of three picture books, 'Speak' was her first novel. Widely reviewed, it was a National Book Award finalist in the States, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults and a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, as well as winning the 1999 Golden Kite Award, given by the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. Both 'Speak' and 'Fever 1793' are listed in the Publishers Weekly Fiction Top Ten titles for May 2002.

About this edition

• Publisher: Hodder Childrens Book
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0340854650
• ISBN 13: 9780340854655
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240