Synopsis
When she agrees to meet with Jasmine as a peer counselor at their middle school, Antonia never dreams that this girl with the black lipstick and pierced eyebrow will end up helping her deal with the serious problems she faces at home and become a good friend.When she agrees to meet with Jasmine as a peer counselor at their middle school, Antonia never dreams that this girl with the black lipstick and pierced eyebrow will end up helping her deal with the problems she faces at home.
Reviews
Grade 7-10-When Antonia is assigned to Jazz as a peer counselor, she figures there is no way she can help this tattooed, pierced, incorrigible girl. They are complete opposites. Antonia is a straight-A student whose parents are divorced and she is struggling to keep what's left of her family together as her mother battles depression. Jazz's family is wealthy and seemingly perfect. As they continue through the 15 hours of peer counseling, it becomes clear that both girls have issues they need to work through. They go from wary classmates to friends who support and help one another. As Antonia's mother is hospitalized for her depression, Jazz battles her own mother's need to control by quitting the one thing she loves most-playing classical piano. Both girls deal with their losses by finding new ways to look at their problems and to resume life as "normally" as possible. This believable book is well written and readers will feel that they know both Jazz and Antonia, and they will want to see them triumph over the frustrations in their lives.
Kimberly A. Ault, Lewisburg Area High School, PA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
In this middle-school drama, two seeming opposites become friends and discover they are not such opposites after all. Peters (How Do You Spell G-E-E-K?) does little to update this well-trod theme, and while there are touching moments in her book, it's generally bland. Nerdy Antonia is assigned to peer-counsel Jazz, whom Antonia assumes is "hopeless. A punker. A druggie. A gang hanger." After a few agonizing sessions, Antonia begins to realize how much she needs someone to talk to. Her dad has split (as readers learn midway through), her mom's so depressed she can't get out of bed and Antonia's overwhelmed with responsibility and pain. Not only does Jazz literally intervene to get her family back on the road to recovery, but by offering her friendship, Antonia learns to depend on someone besides herself. In turn, she helps Jazz learn to talk to her parents and to compromise on arguments without compromising herself. They both learn that judging people by their outside appearance can be misleading. Occasionally, Peters captures a feeling perfectly, like Antonia's loneliness. "That's how I feel, I thought. Like a star...," she says, looking at the sky. "Distant. Detached. Blinking. On-off. On-off." Mostly, though, the exposition depends more on telling than showing. Ages 8-12. (Apr.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Peters (Romance of the Snob Squad, 1999, etc.) mingles humor and pathos in a novel about two girls on opposite ends of the emotional and financial spectrum, who through a blossoming friendship give each other new perspective and become more balanced in the process. When the repressed, rule-following Antonia Dillon finds out that she's to be the peer counselor for the rebellious pierced Jazz Luther whose outrageous behavior is the antithesis of everything Antonia holds dear, she is horrified. Still, Antonia's problems with Jazz pale in comparison to her predicament at home. Her mother has sunk into a deep depression and the job of running the house and caring for her little brothers has fallen on Antonia's shoulders. Jazz also has her share of woes; her controlling parents want her to conform to their country club standards. Although this kind of pairing has been done before, the girls provide neat foils for one another, and Peters gives them depth and dimensionality. The narrative is similarly well-constructed and readers will be surprised by an unanticipated but plausible revelation near the end. Along the way, the book's radiance comes from the lovable humanity of the nimbly nuanced characters. (Fiction. 8-12) -- Copyright ©2000, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Antonia Dillon, a driven honor student at Oberon Middle School, is not surprised when she is asked to become a peer counselor. It's just another honor to add to her resume. But her first counseling session is pure culture shock--Antonia has been paired with the notorious Jasmine "Jazz" Luther, a punker with incredible attitude who uses black lipstick and is into body piercing and tattoos. As the two girls reluctantly continue their sessions, a strange, tentative friendship develops, with each girl gradually revealing more and more about her troubled life. Antonia admits that her divorced mother is deeply depressed and unable to work or care for her family; Jazz talks about her controlling, materialistic yuppie parents and their expectations. As secret after secret is exchanged, it becomes obvious that the "priss" and the punker are made to be best friends. Although the book is marred by one-dimensional secondary characters and a pat conclusion, girls will still enjoy the appealing main characters in this after-school-special-style friendship story. A quick, enjoyable read that will also attract reluctant readers. Jean Franklin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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