Frozen Rodeo

Rating:
Summary: A GREAT read!
Review: This book is one that most teens can relate to, especially if you live in a small town and have a small town festival. There are some parts that are very unrealistic, but this book made me laugh out loud while I was reading it. A great summer read book--you won't be disappointed!

Rating:
Summary: By a teenager awaiting her own summer experience with a job
Review: When Catherine Clark introduces the reader to Peggy Fleming Farrell, it's completely evident that we have a new type of young heroine on our hands. Peggy is responsible, observant, and wryly humorous-- think Ramona Quimby; and then pad her ribs with typically embarrassing high school experiences: dumb counter jobs, annoying co-workers and bosses; the excitement and confusion of love; and, of course, the search for one's identity.

Peggy's voice comes from that tender space between youth and adulthood; and her observations and musings often reflect this complexity accurately. For example, Peggy clearly loves her family-- she speaks in detail about her admiration for her father's athletic ability, or her sister Dorothy's patience-- yet the reader simultaneously develops the sense that Peggy is slightly embarrassed to be her mother's birth coach, or that her parents decided to name all the children after figure skating champions. While the reader is willing to accept that Peggy is of atypical intelligence and maturity, she does, at times, appear too smart-- even for an above-average 16-year-old girl. For example, when Peggy finds out the boy she likes only intended for her to be his makeout partner instead of his girlfriend, she goes to his place of employment to confront him about it. This is a point in Peggy's narration where Clark pushes the writing and does not let Peggy do what seems most natural; the reader senses that Clark directs the scene rather than reports it, if only to maintain Peggy's girl-you'll-be-a-woman-soon balance.

Nonetheless, Frozen Rodeo is an entertaining seasonal read. It's not overly sensational-- it stays real through Peggy's voice-- which is warmly human and very funny.

Rating:
Summary: Frozen Fun
Review: When Catherine Clark introduces the reader to Peggy Fleming Farrell, it's completely evident that we have a new type of young heroine on our hands. Peggy is responsible, observant, and wryly humorous-- think Ramona Quimby; and then pad her ribs with typically embarrassing high school experiences: dumb counter jobs, annoying co-workers and bosses; the excitement and confusion of love; and, of course, the search for one's identity.

Peggy's voice comes from that tender space between youth and adulthood; and her observations and musings often reflect this complexity accurately. For example, Peggy clearly loves her family-- she speaks in detail about her admiration for her father's athletic ability, or her sister Dorothy's patience-- yet the reader simultaneously develops the sense that Peggy is slightly embarrassed to be her mother's birth coach, or that her parents decided to name all the children after figure skating champions. While the reader is willing to accept that Peggy is of atypical intelligence and maturity, she does, at times, appear too smart-- even for an above-average 16-year-old girl. For example, when Peggy finds out the boy she likes only intended for her to be his makeout partner instead of his girlfriend, she goes to his place of employment to confront him about it. This is a point in Peggy's narration where Clark pushes the writing and does not let Peggy do what seems most natural; the reader senses that Clark directs the scene rather than reports it, if only to maintain Peggy's girl-you'll-be-a-woman-soon balance.

Nonetheless, Frozen Rodeo is an entertaining seasonal read. It's not overly sensational-- it stays real through Peggy's voice-- which is warmly human and very funny.