Ahhhh high school. One minute everything is hunky dory the next your isolated, alone and no one will sit with you at lunch.
Friendships are scarce and hard to come by for some and Lishia Vance is struggling with where she fits in and who is really her friend. Then once she makes a connection and begins a new friendship, she has to figure out if this individual is truly her friend or just using her. It's like swimming in a shark tank and author Melody Carlson lays out the emotional picture well.
Carlson does a pretty good job dealing with teen angst in "The Best Friend", the second installment of her Life at KIngston High series. The highs and lows of each day are real as is the social pressure to fit in. At first I thought the premise was a bit contrived but then I kept thinking back to my own high school experience and realized not much has changed. We all just want to belong.
The question is what are we willing to do to achieve that goal? How much of our true selves are we going to give up? Lishia Vance gives up a lot in the beginning but eventually finds her sure footing in this Inspirational YA. It was nice to read a YA that there was virtually no romance just Lishia's story on fitting in and trying to figure out what she really stood for. A quick satisfying read.
Available June 2012 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.Labels: On My Bookshelf
