Secrets of My Hollywood Life by Jen Calonita

Calonita, Jen. Secrets of My Hollywood Life.

Little, Brown and Company, 2006.

ISBN 978-0-316-15442-0

Reader’s Annotation

After 12 years of working as a TV child star, Kaitlin Burke needs and break, and a chance to experience “normal” life, but her plan affects more people than she anticipated, including Evan, a boy she dates who has no idea of who she really is.

Plot Summary

Sometimes being a celebrity is just plain exhausting.  For 16-year-old Kaitlin Burke, the stress (and the competitiveness of her costar Sky Mackenzie), have her wondering what it would be like to just be an ordinary teenager for a few months.  She devises a plan to enroll in the same high school as her friend Liz, and for a few weeks enjoys the simple joy of being liked just for who she really is (or rather, who she appears to be).  Only the principal of Clark Hall High School and, of course, Liz knows Kaitlin’s true identity.  Because she has been working since she was four years old, Kaitlin savors the simple things that she’s never experienced before.  Taking the name Rachel Rogers, and student visiting from England for two months, Kaitlin indulges in things like math class that she loves, and serving on the dance committee.  Kaitlin even begins a relationship a great guy named Evan, who ironically has a slight crush on the famous Kaitlin Burke.  When, at a school dance, Sky cattily “unmasks” Kaitlin, her friends and Evan feel betrayed.  Will Kaitlin be able to save her new-found friendships?

Critical Evaluation

Who doesn’t secretly wish that they could be a celebrity—to live a glamorous life and be the center of attention.  Secrets of My Hollywood Life puts a new spin on that daydream, giving readers a fresh perspective on what that kind of life might actually be like. The fact that Kaitlin has been working since she was four clues you in that she is searching for her identity just like every teen does.  And most teens don’t have a pushy agent, stage mom, and a competitive costar to contend with.  Kaitlin’s relationship comes across as a honest breath of fresh air for Kaitlin, even though you know that it can’t last.  While the premise of the story is as old as the Prince and the Pauper, Secrets of My Hollywood Life is a very entertaining, fun read, and is the first of a six-book series.

Information about the Author

Jen Calonita knows what she writes about.  Uniquely qualified to write celebrity, Calonita worked as a Senior Entertainment Editor at Teen People, and has also written for TV Guide, Glamour and Marie Claire, has interviewed countless young stars.  Calonita live in Merrick, NY with her husband and two sons.  For more information, go to: Jen Calonita.

Genre

Reality Fiction

Chick Lit

Curriculum Tie-ins

None

Booktalk Ideas

1. Did reading Secrets of My Hollywood Life change how you view celebrities?  Why or why not?
2. Discuss Kaitlin’s relationship with Liz.  Compare what that friendship meant to each of them.

Reading level/Interest age

Young Adult (ages 13 +)

Challenge Issues/Challenge Response Ideas

None

Why I included this work

Yalsa's Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults

Winner of the Louisiana Young Readers Award

Great Quote from the Book:

“What if? Your picture was taped inside teenage boys’ lockers across America, your closets were bursting with never-worn designer clothing, and the tabloids constantly asked whether you were losing your “good girl” status?”

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares

Brashares, Ann. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.

Delacourt Press; 2001,

ISBN: 0385730586.

Reader’s Annotation

Best friends Tibby, Carmen, Lena and Bridget must part for the summer, but they discover a pair of magical jeans, and they make a pact to share the jeans, as well as all their adventures during the summer.

Plot Summary

Four friends, best friends, are sophomores in high school, and are about to face their first summer apart.  But before they part, they discover a magical pair of jeans that fits each one of them, despite their different shapes and sizes.  The girls agree to rotate the jeans throughout the summer and include letters about the adventures each girl has.  During the summer, Ann Brashares chronicles the experiences of the four friends: the Tibby befriends a 12-year-old with leukemia, Carmen's father has a new family, Lena falls in love in Greece, and Bridget has her first sexual experience, which devastates her.  This book is the first in a series of four, which follows Tibby, Carmen, Bridget, and Lena from their sophomore year of high school to the end of their freshman year in college.

Critical Evaluation

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants paints a wonderful picture of friendship—the kind of friendship everyone wishes they could have.  When Lena, Bridget, Carmen and Tibby find the jeans, and discover that they fit each one of them perfectly, even though they all are different shapes and sizes they make a pact, to stay close, and to share the jeans.  As each of the girls’ stories are featured, Brashares depict a variety of scenarios, emotions—from joy to anger and sorrow.  The girls make a few bad decisions along the way, but the thing they know that they can count on is their friends. This book, the first in the series, was made into a popular movie in 2005.

Information about the Author

Ann Brashares was born in Alexandria, VA, and grew up in Chevy Chase, MD. She attended elementary and high school at the Sidwell Friends School in Washington D.C. (the same school Melia and Sasha Obama attend now).  At Barnard College, Barashares studied philosophy, and then she went on the work as an editor 17th Street Productions. She is best known for The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, which became an international best seller. For more information, go to: Ann Brashares.

Genre

Romance

Chick Lit

Curriculum Tie-ins

None

Booktalk Ideas

1. What do you think the pants may symbolize?
2. Discuss the importance of friendship in the lives of Lena, Tibby, Bridget and Carmen.  Are those things important to all teens?

Reading level/Interest age

Young Adult (ages 12 +)

Challenge Issues/Challenge Response Ideas

Sexual content

Language

• Present the library’s selection policy
• Be familiar with similar works in the collection
• Refer to ALA Intellectual Freedom resources

 

Why I included this work

• Honors and Awards include:
• South Carolina Young Adult Book Award Nominee (2003-2004)
• Pacific Northwest Library Association Young Reader's Choice (2004)
• ALA Best Books for Young Adults (2002)
• Garden State Book Award (Teen Fiction Grades 9-12, 2004)
• Book Sense Book of the Year (2002.6|Children's Literature Winner, 2002)
• (show all 14 items)ALA Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults (2009.02|Journey > Destination, 2009)
• TASL Volunteer State Book Children's Choice Award (2003-2004)
• Iowa Teen Award Nominee (2003-2004)
• Iowa Teen Award Winner (2003-2004)
• Young Hoosier Book Award Nominee (2003-2004.2|Middle Grades, 2003-2004)
• Young Hoosier Book Award Winner (Middle Grades, 2003-2004)
• Sequoyah Children's Book Award (2004|YA, 2004)
• Abraham Lincoln Illinois High School Book Award Nominee (2007)
• Rhode Island Teen Book (2002)

 Great Quote from the Book:

“I could tell the pants hadn’t come into our lives because of tragedy. They’d just witnessed one of those regular but painful life transitions. That, it turns out, is The Way of the Pants.”

I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You by Ally Carter

Carter, Ally.  I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You.

Hyperion Paperbacks, 2006.

ISBN 978-1423100041

Reader’s Annotation

Cammie Morgan, daughter of the headmistress of the top-secret Gallagher Academy for Girls, is already trained in the art of espionage, but what will she do now that she has fallen for a boy who has no clue of her secret identity?

Plot Summary

At the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Girls, students learn the fine arts--such as how to speak in 14 languages, or how to kill a man in seven different ways with her bare hands, and these elite girls even get extra credit for breaking CIA codes in computer class.  Cammie Morgan is the daughter of the top secret boarding school’s head mistress and a spy father who recently died while on a mission.  Now Cammie faces one of her most challenging (and funny) lessons--what to do when she falls for a Josh, a local boy who has no idea about Cammie’s secret life.  The ensuing maneuvers are filled with laugh-out-loud humor, cool gadgets, and interesting characters.

Critical Evaluation

In a time when too many books for teens have female protagonists who are needy and vulnerable, Ally Carter creates female characters who are strong, smart and highly capable.  Her characters don’t push others away though.  In fact, like Cammie Morgan for example, they are leaders.  In I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You, Carter brings 21^st century feeling into her stories with the high-tech gadgetry and technology.  On the more sensitive side, Cammie, who has earned the nickname “the Chameleon”, finds that the local boy, Josh, seems to really see her, the real Cammie, like no one else ever has.  Cammie is unnerved by this, because outside of the Gallagher Academy, no one can know her identity—even while she longs to come clean and tell Josh everything.  This book is part of the Gallagher Girls series.

Information about the Author

Ally Carter doesn’t like to release too much information about herself because as she admits, “Well, I’m paranoid that way!”  However, she was born and raised in Oklahoma, graduated from both Oklahoma State University and Cornell University.  Her first book, Cheating at Solitaire was published in 2005, and was then closely followed by her first book for young adults in 2006, I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You. For more information, go to Ally Carter.

Genre

Adventure

Romance

Chick Lit
Humor

Curriculum Tie-ins

None

Booktalk Ideas

1. The girls in Cammie's friend group are pretty archetypical: There's gutsy Bex, bad girl Macey, and intellectual Liz... Can you think of other books or movies that have these same types?
2. Rumors have been rampant that this book will be made into a movie.  Although that's not true at this time, who would you cast as Cammie and Josh?

Reading level/Interest age

Young Adult  (ages 12+)

Challenge Issues/Challenge Response Ideas

None likely, but always be prepared with:

• The library's selection policy
• Knowledge of other similar works in the in the collection
• ALA's Intellectual Freedom resources 

Why I included this work

This and Carter’s other novel, The Heist Society made me appreciate her characterizations, especially of the female protagonists.

Great Quote from the Book

"Number of empty Ben & Jerry's containers:3-two mint chocolate cookie, one plain vanilla (Who buys plain vanilla ice cream from Ben & Jerry's, anyway? Is there a greater waste?)"