Francine Thomas (Children's Literature)
Mara Valentine is a straight-A high school senior with early acceptance to Yale who tries to walk the straight and narrow in everything she does--including dating and eating. Enter her slutty, boyfriend-stealing, pot-smoking sixteen-year-old niece known simply as V. Vivienne Vail Valentine is moving in to spend the school year because her single mother, Mara's 35-year-old sister, is off to pursue her own immature dreams. Trouble begins almost as soon as V gets off the plane. Not a first book for author Carolyn Mackler, she exhibits a grasp of the demeanor and language of many of today's teens as well as their propensity for use of the "F" word. The latter makes the storyline more believable, but certainly not more commendable. Written in the first person, the dialogue is delivered in a quick paced, gum-chewing manner. The story lightly explores Mara's maturation process as she takes a look at the person she is becoming and chooses to make changes for the better. Thankfully, V eventually learns to make a few right choices as well. The book may be a popular easy read for many young girls looking for a mildly entertaining treatment of today's challenges of growing up. 2004, Candlewick Press, $16.99. Ages 12 to 14.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, July 1, 2004 (Vol. 72, No. 13))
Warmth and humor suffuse the story of Mara's senior-year transformation from tense, rigid perfectionist to relaxed, centered graduate. Mara has perfect grades, perfect extracurriculars, and a perfectly planned-out future including a ticket to Yale. Then her one-year-younger niece, V (daughter of Mara's much-older sister), comes to live with her and wreaks havoc. V wears a brazen tank top (braless) to school and immediately makes out with Mara's jerky ex-boyfriend. Graffiti appears around school calling V "stonah babe" and "skanky ho." Meanwhile, Mara is falling in love with the 22-year-old owner of the coffee shop where she works and dreaming at night about grilled cheese, which she hasn't eaten since becoming a vegan. Sparring, not friends till the end, Mara learns from V how to enjoy herself and V learns from Mara that it's okay to strive and care. In the last scene, newly independent Mara triumphantly throws her cell phone (parental umbilical cord) into Lake Ontario. Funny and optimistic. 2004, Candlewick, 256p, $16.99. Category: Fiction. Ages 13 up. © 2004 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Claire Rosser (Kliatt Review, July 2004 (Vol. 38, No. 4))
This is the story of two young women on the edge of adulthood, and oddly enough they are an aunt and a niece. The niece, V, is the daughter of Mara's much older sister and Mara and V couldn't have less in common except this family connection. However, just as Mara's brilliant high school career is coming to an end, V comes to live with Mara and her parents and inadvertently becomes a catalyst for change. Mara is the good girl, an excellent student heading for Yale in the fall. V has seen a lot of the world and seems to be a bit of a slut, at least according to Mara--certainly she has had a sex life and Mara hasn't. It takes until the final pages for Mara and V to become friends. V cuts classes and doesn't try hard in school until she starts to shine in the high school production of Damn Yankees as Lola. Her success gives her ego a boost and the loving grandparents (Mara's parents) really support her and help her believe in a promising future. Meanwhile, Mara falls in love with the 22-year-old owner of the coffee shop where she works part time. James is smart and self-educated, but certainly not the sort of boyfriend Mara would have imagined for herself in her obsessive quest to be the best at everything. Their love affair (yes, they sleep together) causes Mara to rethink her previous goals and wonder what she wants in her future. As Mara narrates the story, there is a great deal of sarcasm as she describes her parents, her niece V, and her life in general. It is finally when she does the unexpected, falling in love with someone, hiding her love affair from her parents, that she softens and becomes less judgmental and more likeable. There is frank language throughout and some obscenities. Category: Hardcover Fiction. KLIATT Codes: S--Recommended for senior high school students. 2004, Candlewick Press, 228p., $16.99. Ages 15 to 18.

Jane Cabaya (Library Media Connection, August/September 2004)
Mara Valentine is a virgin, vegan, and senior, whose life comes to a complete about-face in this novel. Her life seems exquisitely simple until her niece, V, shows up on the doorstep. Mara has a very much older sister, Aimee, who has never been able to get her act together. V was the result of one of Aimee's escapades. Now V's a sophomore at Mara's Brockport High School and the trouble begins. Doting parents, boyfriends, sex, competition for valedictorian, the school musical, graffiti and life after graduation all stack up to make this an enjoyable read. V is the instigator of malicious acts and a flashy way of life that includes stealing boyfriends, being a loudmouth, and smoking pot. Mara is the complete opposite-an overachiever with loving parents, and clear goals for the future. The mix of these two in the same family, same house, and same school makes for an exciting, fun read with some unexpected twists. Their different backgrounds and the collisions and resolutions of the incidents provide a lesson in growing up and learning to understand yourself and others. Recommended. 2004, Candlewick Press, 228pp., $16.99 hc. Ages 15 to 18.

Judith Hayn (The ALAN Review, Winter 2005 (Vol. 32, No. 2))
Mara Valentine has it together; she is a straight-A senior, a vegan, and a perfectionist. She is in a duel-to-the-final-GPA race with her ex-boyfriend for the coveted valedictorian spot, has been accepted at Yale, and is ready to leave home and high school in glory. “The first thing V did upon arriving in Brockport was fool around with my ex-boyfriend,” a reference to Vivienne Vail Valentine, Mara’s niece through an estranged older sister, who comes to spend a semester of her junior year with the family. That first tantalizing line in the novel spells the end of Mara’s rigid control of her life as she narrates her own tale of learning more than school offers and growing up in ways she never imagined. V has spent her life without supervision; her flirting, flaunting, and flippant attitude drive Mara batty. A potential new romance with her hunky boss and doubts about her vegetarianism add to the chaos in a breezy, humorous, and revealing novel, as Mara finally gets a clue and comes to grips with the real world. Category: Coming of Age/Identity. YA--Young Adult. 2004, Candlewick Press, 228 pp., $16.99. Ages young adult.Chicago, IL

Deborah Stevenson (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, October 2004 (Vol. 58, No. 2))
Mara Valentine is heading surefootedly into the future, planning to graduate high school as the valedictorian of her class (beating out her ex-boyfriend) and, courtesy of additional studies, start college as a sophomore in the fall, much to the pleasure of her fond parents. Into this orderly arrangement comes Mara's rebellious year-younger niece, Vivienne Vail Valentine, known as V; Mara's parents leap gleefully into rescuing their errant other daughter's errant daughter, lavishing encouragement and attention on her every move while Mara grits her teeth and tries to adjust to V's invasion of every aspect of her life. Mackler demonstrates the same sharp perception as she did in The Earth, My Butt, and Other Round Things (BCCB 10/03) but applies it to a more complicated problem: a girl who's so goal-oriented that she's lost sight of the journey. Though trusty Mara and wild V learn from each other and gradually develop a relationship, the book keeps the theme of V's and Mara's mutual education underplayed, focusing more on Mara's gradual self-questioning and making her reconsideration of her priorities quietly convincing. The slowly evolving love story between Mara and her young boss at the coffee house where she works isn't so much a subplot as a complementary plot, showing Mara what she's missing and giving her an incentive to loosen the bond with her overly supervisory parents, to whom she's tethered by a cell phone. The sensitive and mature romance makes this additionally appealing, but Mara will be a sympathetic heroine to young adults seeking to define their own paths. Review Code: R -- Recommended. (c) Copyright 2004, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 2004, Candlewick, 228p, $16.99. Grades 7-12.

Lisa A. Hazlett (VOYA, October 2004 (Vol. 27, No. 4))
Brainiacs Mara and Travis had been their high school's "it" couple, but after having been dumped online for greener pastures, Mara faces both pain and empty hours. For assuagement and distraction, she single-mindedly pursues academic and personal perfection, but her intense, rigorous choices ironically heighten her focus on Travis's actions while separating her from friends and normal lifestyle. Accepted early by Yale, Mara's remaining goal is to trample Travis for valedictorian. Her focus is interrupted when her older vagabond sister, Aimee, flits to Costa Rica, and Aimee's daughter V, who is a year younger than Mara, arrives. V is Mara's polar opposite, but her promiscuous, wild-child ways are also derived from pain and resentment, albeit toward Aimee and their peripatetic lifestyle. Initially the girls clash, but as their relationship deepens, each assumes the other's persona. Mara eases up on studying, dumps her vegan diet, reconnects with friends, and begins a mature, sexual relationship. V straightens up, gives a show-stopping performance in the school play, and prepares for the SATs. Both girls-especially V-change lifestyles too quickly, but each begins settling into her true personality. The ending feels implausible as Mara, having earned valedictorian, decides to skip graduation. V persuades her to attend, but thoughtful and conscientious Mara's action seems as unlikely as V's refusal to consider Mara's absence. Racily narrated by likeable Mara, this fast-paced coming-of-age story is charged with sarcasm, angst, honesty, and hope. Many teen girls will recognize parts of themselves within its pages. VOYA CODES: 4Q 4P S (Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses; Broad general YA appeal; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12). 2004, Candlewick, 256p., $16.99. Ages 15 to 18.