Thursday, September 17, 2009

Book Review: Peace, Love, and Baby Ducks

Title: Peace, Love, and Baby Ducks
Author: Lauren Myracle
Genre: YA Commercial Fiction
Rating: A

Summary: Two sisters spend a summer apart and start to grow apart. When Sophomore Carly is joined at Holy Redeemer High School in an exclusive suburb or Atlanta, GA, by her Freshman Sister, Anna (who got mega boobs over the season), her view of herself and her sister (and pretty much the whole world) starts to change.

First Line: "I'm out by our pool with my sister Anna and my best friend, Peyton. Anna and Peyton are working on their tans; I, on the other hand, am carving a 'peace' symbol into a potato."

Review: I loved this book and sucked it down in one night of self-abandoned reading. (I even skipped watching the Gossip Girl season premiere (for shame) to read this book.)

Is that not enough enticement of how awesome this book is?

I'm afraid that anything I write won't be truly awesome and it'll make you think that the book isn't completely awesome, and that would be (for shame) too bad. I'm half-tempted to just repost the fantastic review of this book from the (fantastic) blog Forever YA (which is what I read that got me to check the book out).

But I won't.

I'll tell you the characters were entertaining (and there was a huge variety--every race and country represented in this rainbow kaleidoscope) and their dialogue was believeable. As were their interactions (for the most part). All the girls were spot-on in their jealousy; the only thing that wasn't perfect was the long-suffering Roger (who crushes on Carly). Seriously, no 15-year-old guy is that patient. He shoulda knocked some boots (do the kids say that these days?) with another chick to get Carly to be jealous (that's what a normal guy would have done). Or is Myracle trying to make a statement that the Dutch aren't normal? Could be... Rose Nylund was definitely the wackiest lady on Golden Girls.

But all that aside, the relationship between Carly and Anna was awesome to read. Maybe it's because I'm a sister (and I know that deep down, in the part that never gets talked about, you are jealous of their successes and/or popularity), but I loved this book. And I can say that from a "grown-up" place where my sister is my best friend (and annoys me endlessly sometimes, as do I to her).

Recommendations: I don't know what else to recommend because this book might be one of the first books where the relationship between sisters was the big deal. Even still, check this out.

4 comments:

Suey said...

I just checked this out of the library the other day not knowing a thing about it. Now I'll for sure have to read it!

Andrea said...

I've only read one other Myracle book and I loved it. I need to check out this one. Great review!

poshdeluxe said...

i'm so glad you liked it as much as i did!! don't you hate it when you spazz out about a book and then yr friend reads it and is just like, "yeah... it was ok" (it's even worse, as pointed out by meredith on FYA, when they add: "but it wasn't as good as twlight").

double true on roger, though. dude would NOT have waited, esp. since he had to watch carly throw herself at that CMM wannabe.

Literature Crazy said...

@Suey - Hope you enjoy it. If you post the link to your review (if you post one) here in the comments, I'd be stoked to read it (and see if we have a twin mind-meld).

@Andrea - I "promise" you'll love it. It's probably readily available at your local library. Get it post haste!

@poshdeluxe - Nothing will ever be as good as Twilight.