Jessica
Brody
ISBN: 978-0374399054
Farrar
Straus Giroux, 2011
Plot
Summary: Fifteen-year-old
Brooklyn Pierce can’t get a break. She’s been prone to always make bad
decisions. Forever labeled as “Baby Brooklyn” when, at two, she made national
headlines when she followed a lizard and ended up falling down an abandoned
mine shaft to present day when she lets her best friend Shayne convince her to
hold a ragger in her mom’s multi-million dollar model home and a drunken
attempt to make fajitas results in the model burning down. Left with all the
blame, Brooklyn’s life is now full of no
friends (Shayne dropped her like that) and no life as she is forced to do 200
hours of community service at a nursing home and also help reconstruct the new
model home on her weekends. Feeling like she can’t be trusted with her own
decisions anymore she decides (this being the last one) to have other people
make them for her and begins an anonymous blog called “My Life Undecided” in
which her readers will vote on decisions and she will follow them as
determined. At first, her few loyal readers help her try new things—going out
for the rugby team (which she finds she’s bad at), the debate team (which she
finds she’s good at), and more. However, she’s torn when the new hot boy in
school, Hunter, shows interest in her while Brian, her debate partner, also
seems smitten. When she succumbs and makes her own decision (deciding to go out
with Hunter instead of Brian) the consequences end up with her in a gas station
that is being robbed and she makes it on the news as a hero—Baby Brooklyn all
grown up. The media attention draws Shayne back and Brooklyn
begins to fall back into her old ways. When her over perfect sister comes to
visit and has a near heart attack because of the pills she’s taking to help her
keep up with her intense studies at Harvard, Brooklyn
begins to reevaluate her life. Should she go to the dance with Hunter or Brian?
Will she be able to make the right choice on her own?
Critical
Evaluation:
Brody is a fun author despite some similarities between books (for example, her
overuse of the word “diatribe” and the fact that all her characters in all her
books read the same Cosmo-like rip
off magazine and two characters each get involved in a robbery holdup). Some of
the plot seems a little unbelievable and, at times, Brooklyn
seems older than 15. Overall, it has a positive message delivered in a humorous
manner—to be independent and to be brave enough to make your own decisions
because it is your own life being affected.
Reader's
Annotation: “Baby” Brooklyn
has always made bad decisions ever since she made national news at the age of
two when she fell down an abandoned mine. Ever since, she’s made bad choice
after bad choice. She’s now tired of it. She decides on one more decision—to
start an anonymous blog in which she will poll her readers on various decisions
and do what they vote she do.
Author
Information:
Jessica Brody knew from a young age that she wanted to be a writer. She started
self “publishing” her own books when she was seven years old, binding the pages
together with cardboard, wallpaper samples and electrical tape. After
graduating from Smith College in 2001 where she double majored in Economics and
French and minored in Japanese, Jessica later went on to work for MGM Studios
as a Manager of Acquisitions and Business Development. In May of 2005, Jessica
quit her job to follow her dream of becoming a published author. In four short
years, Jessica has sold nine novels (two adult novels to St.
Martin’s Press and seven young adult novels to Farrar, Straus,
Giroux). Jessica’s books are published and translated in over fifteen foreign
countries, including the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Czech Republic, Indonesia,
Russia, Brazil, Portugal, Poland, Bulgaria, Israel, and Taiwan. Jessica now
works full time as a writer and producer. She currently splits her time between
Los Angeles and Colorado (Brody, n.d.).
Genre: Realistic, Humor
Curriculum
Ties: N/A
Booktalking
Ideas: Read the funny rugby audition
Reading
Level/Interest Age: 14+
Challenge
Issues: Sex,
drugs, drinking, language
Challenge
Defense: If this book were challenged, I would make
sure the library has a Challenge Defense File ready for such a situation.
Inside the Challenge Defense File, librarians and the public could find:
·
A
copy of the American Library Association’s Library
Bill of Rights. (Can be found and printed from ALA’s website at http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill)
·
A
copy of the American Library Association’s Freedom to Read Statement (Can be
found and printed from ALA’s
website at http://www.ala.org/offices/oif/statementspols/ftrstatement/freedomreadstatement)
·
A
copy of the library’s own selection policy (my library, the La Vista Public
Library, has a policy but it is not online so I can’t link to it as an
example).
·
A
copy of the library’s citizen’s complaint/reconsideration form (my library, the
La Vista Public Library’s, form is called the City of La Vista Service Request form).
·
Copies
of reviews—both good and bad—from reputable library and publishing services to
justify why a book was selected for inclusion in the collection. These include
not only reviews from such journals as School
Library Journal, VOYA, Horn Book, Publishers Weekly, and Booklist, but also any mention of books
on YALSA lists and other copies of articles about any awards or nominations
such books may have received.
·
Include
a short rationale file for other coworkers so if the librarian in charge of
selecting materials is not available when a challenge occurs the other staff
members have some information to go by (the rational would include such
information as a short summary, what could be challenged, reviews, awards and
nominations, etc.)
·
Include
for staff members a copy of “Strategies and Tips for Dealing with Challenges to
Library Materials,” a document written by the American Library Association.
Make sure that staff reviews this document periodically so they are prepared
and know how to face such situations. (Can be found and printed from ALA’s website at http://www.ala.org/advocacy/banned/challengeslibrarymaterials/copingwithchallenges/strategiestips)
Reason
for Inclusion: Well-written and humorous realistic fiction
YA author.
References:
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