Prom by Laurie Halse Anderson
Published- New York: Viking, 2005. 215 pages.
Who doesn’t want to go to prom?! Ashley Hannigan’s friends are obsessed with prom. Her best friend Nat is the head of Prom Committee. But Ashley, a normal high school student, has zero interest in the event. Ash is just waiting to be free from high school. She just isn’t a “school person.” Ash isn’t dumb, she is not good at school. She isn’t a trouble maker, she just seems to constantly be getting dententions. Her boyfriend, TJ, is a high school drop out and Ashley has no plans after high school other than to move into an apartment with him. When the math teacher steals the money for prom, her friends are sent into a tizzy trying to pull together a magical night in just 11 days for next to no money. As Ashley is dragged into the planning frenzy, she discovers that she can do more than she ever thought she could.
The voices of each character was distinct and real. Ashley is a completely realistic teenager. Especially her reaction to the apartment that she and TJ would be able to afford. As she looked around the tiny apartment with toilet behind a curtain, she explained how she had envisioned her apratment as being in a building with a doorman and maybe even a gym. Her unrealistic hopes of what she could afford and accomplish with only a high school education was similar to the many high school students that I have worked with.
Cover art: The white limo with a pink dress caught in the door was a cute cover for this novel. The dress was a nice detail that gave readers a hint that not everything was fairy tale perfect in the book’s prom.
4Q, 4A
Mid, Jr, Sr
