Hancock Park: A Novel - Hardcover

Kaplan, Isabel

3.21

131 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0061246522 ISBN 13: 9780061246524

Publisher: Harper Teen, 2009

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Becky Miller lives in the best neighborhood, goes to school with the children of movie stars, and has her psychiatrist on speed dial. She may live in the City of Angels, but this sixteen-year-old's life is far from perfect.

By day, Becky navigates the halls of one of L.A.'s most elite schools, where the mean girls are a special breed of mean, and at night, she deals with sparring parents, a grandmother who is man-crazy, and a younger brother, Jack, who answers only to J-zizzy. As Becky's life comes crashing down around her, she struggles to put it back together and learn to grow up while trying to stay sane.

Isabel Kaplan dishes the dirt on the children of Hollywood's elite—from Spago delivered to campus at lunch and shrinks who dole out psychotropic drugs as though they're candy to parent-free parties at the Four Seasons—the lives of Becky and her creator, Isabel Kaplan, are like no other, and yet strangely, just like everyone's.

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About the Author:

Isabel Kaplan was born in Los Angeles, where she attended Marlborough School. She is now a student at Harvard University. This is her first novel.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 8–11—In this debut novel, Kaplan has created a teenager who actually talks, thinks, and acts like one. Angeleno Becky Miller, 16, like most of her friends, has parents in "the business": Mom has a talk show and Dad is an entertainment attorney. Although both of them have good intentions and love their children, they have little time to interact with them on a daily basis. Becky and her younger brother pretty much manage their own lives. The stress of this lifestyle really affects her, and she shows signs of OCD and severe anxiety, which heavy medication only partially relieves. Becky knows that she needs to keep her life together while everything else, including her parents' marriage, is falling apart, but it's tough when you don't have much control over such matters. This pivotal semester is a true test of her character and endurance, and as she stumbles through, readers will relate to her difficulties and cheer for her successes. Kaplan is an author to watch.—Susan Riley, Mount Kisco Public Library, NY
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