Ditched: A Love Story by Robin Mellom

Ditched: A Love Story by Robin Mellom is a fun high school romance novel.  I guess I am stuck reading Prom stories, but unlike Prom and Prejudice, the main character in this novel makes it to the Prom with the guy of her dreams.  However, the novel begins with Justina lying in a ditch in her blue iridescent prom dress with matching shoes and big blue rose corsage.  She has a nasty bump on her head, several stains on her dress and a tweedy bird tattoo.  She has not only been ditched by her date, but literally left in a ditch on Prom Night.  Justina makes her way to a nearby 7-Eleven where she meets a group of sympathetic women who want to hear her story.  The situations Justina gets herself into at her prom are both horible and hilarious.  If you are looking for a fun romance that doesn't take itself too seriously, this is the book for you.

This book reminds me of My Boyfriend's Dogs: the tales of Adam and Eve and Shirley by Dandi Daley Mackall.  The main character in this book also has a disasterous prom night and finds herself telling waiting out a thunderstorm in an all night diner dressed in her prom dress with her three dogs.  She tells the story of how she ended up with each of the dogs by telling the story of her romances with each of the dogs original owners.  If you enjoy Ditched, then you will definitely enjoy My Boyfriend's Dogs.

Elizabeth Eulberg

     
Last week I attended the Kansas Association of School Librarians Annual Conference and Elizabeth Eulberg (picture on right) was one of the featured speakers.  Of course, we all loved her when she told us that her mother was a school librarian and that books had a great impact on her life.  Before becoming a full-time writer, Eulberg worked as a publicist for Scholastic and worked with such authors as Stephenie Meyers, Suzanne Collins, and David Levithan. 

I had not heard of Eulberg before the conference, but I discovered that we had both of her books in our library.  I checked them out and read them quickly, so I would be ready to meet her.  Her books are light-hearted and fun.

 The Lonely Hearts Club is about Penny Lane whose parents are hardcore Beatles fans as you can tell by her name.  Penny is sick and tired of boys, so she vows not to date another boy until she graduates from high school next year.  She discovers that she is not the only girl in her school that is fed up with boys and soon the Lonely Hearts Club is born.  The girls pledge not to date and to spend every Saturday night with girlfriends instead of trying to impress boys.  The Club is very empowering for the girls involved which causes problems with the other students in school.  This is a great book for any girl who has had a friendship play second fiddle to a boy.  Penny and her friends learn that it is the friends you have in high school that last, not the boyfriends.

I enjoyed Prom and Prejudice even more than The Lonely Hearts Club.  Prom and Prejudice as you can tell is based on Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.  Lizzie Bennett attends an expensive boarding school on a music and academic scholarship.  Prom is a very big deal at her school where girls have dresses made by famous designers.  Because Lizzie is a scholarship student, she is bullied and picked on by the other students, but unlike the others, she has no interest in attending prom.  Lizzie does not like any of the boys at school until she meets her roommate Jane's new boyfriend.  Charles seems very nice and Lizzie is very happy for Jane until she meets Charles' friend Darcy.  Lizzie thinks that Darcy is a pompous jerk; however, she finds herself drawn to him.  Will Lizzie's pride and Darcy's prejudice keep them apart or will they find a way to attend the prom?