BUYING GUIDE. Grade 9 Up—In this often astute, occasionally awkward take on family and unwanted fame, Hannah Jackson James tries not to live in her parents' dubious shadow. Her father is an aging reality TV star with a Hugh Hefner-esque castle full of girlfriends. Her mother, a minor actress and former girlfriend of Jackson's, now makes her money hosting a webcam show in skimpy underwear. When Hannah moved with her mom to a small town at age 12, she tried her hardest to blend in. Five years later, her concerns include staying unnoticed at school, making sure her mom can pay the bills, and deciding how to approach the object of her affection, a fellow student named Josh who works next to Hannah at the drive-through call center for a fast-food chain. Then her father calls for the first time in five years to invite her to visit him in New York. Hannah is torn between her desire for his love and her suspicion that the gesture is nothing more than a cynical ratings ploy. Scott's portrayal of Hannah's family situation is subtle and convincing. Readers will understand without being told that Hannah and her mother love one another, but that Hannah is as much a parent as a child. Her relationships with her peers are less believable. Her interest in Josh never quite seems genuine, and readers realize long before she does that Finn, a kind but irreverent goofball, is a better match. Though this story treads familiar ground, many teen girls will enjoy it.—Megan Honig, New York Public Library
Product Details
# Original Release Date: October 26, 2009
# Release Date: October 26, 2009
# Label: Streamline/Interscoope/KonLive/Cherrytree
# Copyright: (C) 2009 Interscope Records
# Duration: 4:55 minutes
# Genres: Pop/General
Perhaps recovering from the harrowing Living Dead Girl (2008), Scott retreats to cozy romantic shenanigans with this predictable but good-natured entry in the which-boy-will-she-choose canon. Seventeen-year-old Hannah is known for exactly one thing: her mother, current erotic Web-chat hostess and former girlfriend of a Hugh Hefner–like celebrity named Jackson. Hannah is Jackson’s estranged daughter, and her tentative forays into the elderly sex magnate’s bizarre life form the most unique segments of the plot. For someone whose parents were so famously connected to sex, Hannah sure isn’t getting any—instead she plugs away taking drive-through burger orders next to the dreamy Josh and the annoying Finn. It doesn’t take a genius to know immediately that Finn is the one she’ll end up with; in fact, Hannah’s obliviousness to her own feelings is somewhat trying. Given the current popularity of the Hefner-centered reality-TV show, this light offering will undoubtedly find readers, and might even dampen the allure of living a Playboy lifestyle. Grades 8-11. --Daniel Kraus
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