The Double Life of Angela Jones

Rating:
Summary: Money Troubles
Review: Angela Jones, a 16-year-old New Yorker, is hardly ashamed of her lower-class neighborhood. After all, this is where she's grown up with her best friend Denise Prendes. But Angela's father wants more for her. He knows his daughter is a bright student and wants to succeed at college, but she certainly won't get the help she needs at her current high school. So he arranges for an interview for her at Mt. Pleasant School, a rich New Hampshire private school that offers scholarships to underprivileged teens like Angela.

Angela, at first, refuses to attend a high school with snobs. She wants to remain with her friends in New York, not trying to pretend she belongs where she doesn't. But she eventually realizes this is her only chance to get a better education and do something more meaningful with her life than what lay ahead for her in New York City.

Once she arrives at Mt. Pleasant School, Angela remains distant from the other students, feeling like a complete outcast when she compares their lifestyle to hers. Her stay at the school doesn't appear promising at first, especially when she fights with her roommate (Gabriella Fuentes Cameron) on her first day. However, the two girls later patch up their differences and become good friends.

Angela's outlook further improves when she meets Andy Bean, a local gas attendant who works a few blocks away from her new school. She meets him while stopping by to fuel up Gabriella's Porsche, which he believes is hers. Angela makes no attempt to say otherwise, a mistake that will later ruin their relationship based on Andy's superficial interest in her.

"The Double Life of Angela Jones" is a great book for preteens, tackling issues such as social prejudice between rich and poor classes. Even Angela isn't free from being judgmental, but one of the hardest lessons for her to learn from is when her supposed best friend in New York (Denise) shuns her because of her new, "rich" lifestyle.