How to Ruin My Teenage Life

Title - How to Ruin My Teenage Life
Author - Simone Elkeles
ISBN - 0738710199
Publication Date - 2007

Plot - Amy Nelson-Bank is the product of unmarried parents, trying to figure out some way to make sense of her life.  She begins the novel moving to Chicago to live with her father, as a result of her mothers impending marriage.  She moved away at the beginning of high school and has stayed there to be able to develop some consistency in her life.  But as she is growing older, she is dealing with what it means to grow up, and how to have appropriate relationships with different people.  She goes through a series of struggles understanding this.  Various subplots include, using the cell phone too much so needing to repay her father by getting a job.  She has a friend who is in love with her that she kind of leads on, despite caring for someone else who fits more into the world of which she is a part.  She draws drama to herself by attempting to set her father up on a blind date through a service, neglecting to tell her dad that she was doing this.  And she has a best friend who seems to develop romantic attachments in every conceivable direction, even with a Muslim despite the fact that she is Jewish. 

Despite all of the travails of our lead character, she seems to make some semblance of sense out of her life.  She ends up getting the right Jewish boy, and convincing him that she is going to be OK while he fulfills his service to his country.  She and Nate come to some soft of an understanding about their friendship.  She no longer has to worry about his attraction towards her anymore.  And she has carved a niche for herself in Chicago with her dad, somewhere she feels she can call home.  Ah... if there just weren't plastic handcuffs in the back of her dad's car.

Critical Review - Simone Elkeles has written an inviting novel, focusing on the world of Amy Nelson-Bank.  The key to this novel is the engagement that you have with the person of Amy.  She is the narrator of the novel and its all told from her perspective.  To be successful she needs to be an engaging personality, and have an air of realness about her, which Elkeles writes very effectively.  Furthermore we get a good sense of the community to which she is a part.  This includes places to socialize, people they socialize with, and the religious institutions to which they are a part.  It is essential to convey this in a delicate manner and not a heavy handed way so that you feel for the characters plights, yet do not rebel against what the community standards are.  With her deft writing and wit, I believe Elkeles has accomplished just that.

Reader's Annotation - Amy Nelson-Bank is about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime: love.  Please don't let her own foolishness get in her way.

About the Author - Simone Elkeles was a product of her Chicago upbringing.  She carries with her a deft sense of humor about life and those around her.  Her acerbic wit can be attributed to growing up in the 80s and seeing all of the "rad" things that were around her.  The punk era and boys with eye-shadow were all the rage.

Through this prism she had a unique perspective about what it meant to be growing up, and how to deal with the relationships around her, especially with members of the opposite sex.  She has thus become an author of teenage books.  She wants to be able to reflect a little humor and the teens around her.

Genre - Chic Lit, Drama

Curriculum Ties - Have an examination on the various types of literature that are included as a part of the Chic Lit genre.  What does it mean to be chic lit?

Booktalking Ideas - Have everyone describe a situation where they thought they had planned everything out to the last detail, and somehow it all unravels before them.

Reading Level/Interest Age - Grade 9+

Challenge Issues - None

Why Included - I wanted to include various types of Chic Lit as its hard to pinpoint exactly what is Chic Lit