Elisa
Ludwig
ISBN: 978-0062066060
Katherine
Tegan, 2012
Plot
Summary: Fifteen-year-old
Willa has constantly been on the move with her free-spirited artist mother.
When her mom sells some paintings for a lot of money, they decide to finally
settle down in Paradise Valley,
Arizona in a fancy house and
Willa finds herself enrolled in the exclusive K-12 private academy called
Valley Prep. On her first day she makes an impression when she literally gets
run over on her bike by a girl in a fancy new sports car. Willa is introduced
to Cherise and her friends Nikki and Kellie, also known to others as the
Glitterati, the popular of the popular girls. Soon she’s settling into her new
life of designer duds and daily shopping sprees costing hundreds of dollars.
She’s living the good life for once. Unfortunately, when she realizes that
Nikki and Kellie are the voices behind the Buzz—a blog that trashes the less
fortunate of students, including three really nice scholarship girls—Willa gets
angry. Knowing what it’s like to be poor, Willa convinces her friend, Tre, a
boy with a bad reputation and past, to teach her the art of pick pocketing. She
plans on doing a whole Robin Hood-esque crime spree—stealing from the rich to
give to the poor. However, soon Willa’s crimes catch up to her and she’s forced
to pay the price except she’s got those for her and those against her and when
she finds her house broken into and ransacked, she figures it is the work of
the Glitterati and declares war with them.
Critical
Evaluation:
There is no wondering that this is the first in a trilogy (which might make
some readers sad when they, like me, think it is a stand alone novel) with its
cliffhanger ending. It really takes a lot of time to get the story going (more
than 100 pages before she starts her plan) and leaves a lot of unanswered
questions that will hopefully be answered in future volumes. A lot of time is
spent getting to Willa’s plan—many, many shopping sprees described, and so on.
Hopefully this is all just a set up for a exciting second volume. Willa is a
very likeable character. She’s always been poor and is thrust into the weird
world of spoiled brats. She doesn’t really change when she comes into money
which is nice and only spends money because her mom tells her she can. Willa’s
intentions are good as she plans to rob from the rich to give to the poor. It’s
nice to see a family that is pretty poor in a YA book as most always seem to be
well off and never concerned about money problems. Here is Willa a character
that has before lived in her car and doesn’t have that many possessions because
it’s easier to move when she doesn’t have much to pack. I think many readers
will be able to side with Willa and understand her motivation to help the
poorer girls and get back at the rich brats.
Reader's
Annotation:
Steal from the rich and give to the poor? Sound familiar? It’s Robin Hood for a
modern generation. Willa grew up poor and when her artist mother sells some
paintings and they move up in life, Willa hates how snobby rich girls treat the
poor scholarship students of her new private academy. So what’s she do? Learn
some mad pick pocketing skills to anonymously give to the poor girls!
Author
Information:
Ludwig’s debut young adult novel Pretty
Crooked (Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins) was released in March 2012. Even
though she had to extensively research pickpocketing techniques, she is a
law-abiding citizen. Ludwig lives in Philadelphia
with her husband, Jesse. She is a proud member of The Apocalypsies, a group of
children's book authors debuting in 2012. Her sequel, Pretty Sly, is being released in 2013 (Elisa, n.d.).
Genre: Action, Humor
Curriculum
Ties: N/A
Booktalking
Ideas: Read a scene of Willa learning thieving
skills.
Reading
Level/Interest Age: 13+
Challenge
Issues: N/A
Challenge
Defense: N/A
Reason
for Inclusion: A humorous action book for girls (that guys
would like if they get past the girly cover) that is different from a lot of
what is out there in YA books today.
References:
Elisa
Ludwig. (n.d.). Goodreads author profile.
Retrieved from http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/45927.Elisa_Ludwig
No comments:
Post a Comment