Young Adult Revisited

Here's what you need to know about Lily Bancroft. She's up for a prestigious honors scholarship that goes to the valedictorian. She has a boyfriend named Alex. And she works for her uncle Bob in his drugstore. Oh, and she really, really hates her social studies teacher Mr. Reiner. At the very beginning of the book, she goes to see him about changing her grade on a recent test. She claims she got all the multiple choices questions right and gave him everything he wanted in the essay section. I'm totally on her side until she says that some random girl in another class had similar results and got an A instead of the B that Lily got. He then points out that the other girl is in regular social studies class and not the honors section like her. Lily fantasizes about jumping over the desk and strangling him before running off when he won't change her grade. After chatting with Alex and her friend Julie, who had an older brother killed in a robbery, she start...

  Jessica is super excited because (a) her class is taking a field trip to the zoo and (b) Alice is the field trip mom/chaperon. As she explains to Liz, it means they get to lead the group and basically do whatever they want. That clearly isn't true though. Alice won't make Amy and Eve switch seats with them and makes them go to the back of the line when Jessica tries to cut to be next to her. She eventually gets so ticked off that when they reach the zoo, she convinces Liz, who is her buddy, to ditch the group. Liz refuses and they fight for so long that Winston and Todd come over to see what's going on. By the time they finish explaining themselves, the group really is gone. That's okay with Jessica because a bunch of kids wanted to see the snakes that she hates and all she wanted to do was see the monkeys. The zoo closed down that branch because a baby chimpanzee went missing. That doesn't stop her from convincing the others they should sneak over a...

You might remember Coach Wu from back when Kristy joined the softball team. It turns out that she also played soccer for UNC, which is where Mia Hamm went to school, and she's now the coach of the Stoneybrook Special Olympics soccer team. They take players with mental handicaps and partner them with other players. The handicapped kids are players, and the other kids are their partners. Abby signed up because she isn't getting the chance to play as much as she wanted. Abby spends most of her first practice thinking about how she's so much better than all the other players. Erin, one of the handicapped players, is a lot better than Abby expected. When the coach assigns spots, she puts Abby in a defensive spot and gives Erin Abby's usual spot. Abby tells her that she's a striker and was the top scorer on her old team, but the coach remains unmoved. Since she knows way better than anyone else, Abby decides that it's her job to show the coach how wron...

  In the very short prologue, the cheerleading team from Salem University are competing in the regional championship. Someone keeps watching them from the shadows and whispering about how they will get what is coming to them soon enough. Apparently Salem University does cheerleading in a completely different way than any other school in the world. All the girls trying out live in a dormitory called Abby House, even though classes already started and they presumably already live on campus. Delle is a new freshman who tries out because she was a cheerleader in junior high and high school. It totally kicks her ass and makes her think back to her high school boyfriend, Warren, who she dumped after he proposed to her. The girls also meet Marla and Rory, who are the co-captains of the squad and Jennifer, one of the other cheerleaders. Marla later tells them that the reason they need new cheerleaders is because the old squad died in a bus accident. The bus crashed and e...

The Experiment opens with the Professor sitting in his office and talking about some young woman. The Professor says she never even visited his office before and that she has no idea of the predators watching her every move. We then jump right into the action. Professor Maximillion DeLure is the hottest teacher at Salem University. Caryl tells her best friend Anna all about how she thinks he's gorgeous, and Anna briefly mentions that there are some weird rumors about him on campus. We also meet Anna's love interest Nicholas and Carl who is the professor's assistant. Carl talks a little about the new class seminar called Poets and Scientists. Since Caryl really wants to be a writer, she wants in that seminar. She applied for a spot and rushes back to see if she got an invite. When she reaches in her mailbox, a hand grabs her and starts tugging on her. Just as she starts screaming, she realizes it's the mail guy, Ben. Ben and Caryl have been dating, and h...

Hey, remember that time when Elizabeth was “kidnapped” by that guy who just wanted to stare at her hair and watch her eat pancakes? Well, this book comes right after that one. She's now back home, so SVH decides to celebrate in the only way it knows how, with a party. Jessica, surprisingly, does most of the planning and hard work. Liz eventually meets Nicholas Morrow, the hot new guy who Jessica is in love with at the moment. While Liz thinks he's just being nice to her because he wants to make new friends, he asks her to dance with him several times in a row. Nicholas spends most of the night following her around like a little lost puppy dog, while Liz spends most of the night avoiding Todd and wondering if she should talk to him. Meanwhile, Jessica really, really wants Nicholas to ask her out. Every time she finds him though, he makes up an excuse to walk away so he can trail after Liz again. When it finally comes time to leave, he gets her alone. Nicholas te...

The twins and all their friends are getting ready to go away to camp for the first time ever. They all go to the mall to do some shopping and run into Grace Oliver. She tells them that she was supposed to go to camp but now can't and then runs away crying. Liz chases her down, shoulder pats her, and finds out that Grace's parents are fighting a lot and considering a divorce. They decided to take separate vacations to make a decision and send her to her godmother's house instead. Liz convinces her that she should talk to her parents and tell them that she really wants to go to camp. Grace agrees, but comes home to find them shouting at each other once again. Worried that telling them how she feels will lead to an even bigger fight, she just runs away and hides in her room. And Lila shows up at the mall to announce that she's not going to camp anymore because she's now going to Paris and possibly London with her grandmother. The twins arrive at camp an...