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Booktalking Colorado Full Record:
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Title: |
All American Girl |
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Author: |
Cabot, Meg |
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Date Published: |
2002 |
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Genre: |
Humor |
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Grade Level: |
6 - 9 |
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Booktalker: |
Susan Bartel |
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Awards: |
Former Blue Spruce Award Nominee |
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Booktalk:
Here are the top 10 reasons why Samantha Madison’s life might just be over:
10. She can’t stand her first-born sister (a.k.a. Lucy): you know the kid most likely to be CEO of a major corporation, dictator of a small country, supermodel, you name it.
9. She’s in love with her first-born sister’s boyfriend (a.k.a. Jack): you know, the one with the soul of an artist, the tortured genius. Surely Jack is just about to realize that he really doesn’t like Lucy dragging him to teen gross-out movies, or the mall, or receiving boxer shorts with Tweetie Bird on them for his birthday. Surely he would much rather see independent films, visit museums or galleries, discuss the latest issue of Art in America, and open a present filled with sable brushes or a leather-bound copy of Romeo and Juliet.
8. She can’t even begin to understand her last-born sister (a.k.a. Rebecca): you know, the kid most likely to discover a cure for cancer, host her own talk show, step up to the alien mother ship when it lands and be all, “Hey, welcome to Earth.”
7. That’s right, Samantha is the middle sister: you know, the misunderstood forgotten middle child. The kid most likely to be a teen runaway, the one who’s died everything she owns black and has bright orange hair sticking straight out of the top of her head.
6. Samantha has to take art lessons from Susan Boone. That’s right Susan Boone. You know, the teacher who has a big black crow named Joe who likes to take chunks out of Samantha’s scalp while chanting, “Mind your manners, mind your manners.” Susan Boone, who has the nerve to tell Sam that she must “draw what she sees, not what she knows”… as if she weren’t already the best artist in the whole class.
5. While trying to avoid art lessons Samantha inadvertently saves the life of the President. That’s right, the President. You know, the guy who runs our nation. She didn’t mean to do it. One minute she was standing on the street, looking for her ride. The next minute the President’s entourage pulls up and “He” gets out. Then some old guy next to her pulls a gun, and Samantha finds herself flying through the air at the old guy.
4. Samantha now has a broken wrist, is in the hospital, is surrounded by men in black suits with ear thingies, and is looking at the TV with breaking news bulletins showing a picture of Samantha’s school ID photo… You know, the one you never show to anyone for fear of public humiliation… the one where you blink just as the picture’s being taken and your hair has gone completely berserk.
3. The news is calling Samantha a national hero and now she can’t go anywhere without lightbulbs popping in her face and microphones being stuck under her chin. People who used to avoid Sam now invite her to parties and dress in all new, all black clothes from the Gap. And, to top it off, Samantha has been asked, by the President, to be the Teen Ambassador to the U.N.
2. Samantha has just found out that the cute guy in her art class at Susan Boone’s is none other than the son of the President of the United States. You know, the one whose life she just saved. How was she to know? I mean, he was wearing a Save Ferris T-shirt and combat boots. He looked nothing like the geeky guy she’d seen on TV.
1. Samantha begins to suspect that Number One Son might just be in love with her.
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