Teen Idol

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Overview
Editorial Reviews
Product Details
Related Subjects
Meet the Author
First Chapter

Overview

High school junior Jenny Greenley is so good at keeping secrets that she's the school newspaper's anonymous advice columnist. She's so good at it that, when hotter-than-hot Hollywood star Luke Striker comes to her small town to research a role, Jenny is the one in charge of keeping his identity under wraps. But Luke doesn't make it easy, and soon everyone — the town, the paparazzi, and the tabloids alike — know his secret ... and Jenny is caught right in the middle of all the chaos.

When teenage heartthrob Luke Stryker shows up at a small-town Indiana high school to do research for a movie role, he persuades junior Jenny Greenley to use her considerable talents to try to change things at school for the better.

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Editorial Reviews

From Barnes & Noble

The Barnes & Noble Review
Princess Diaries creator Meg Cabot departs from her popular series with this star-studded tale of a midwestern high schooler who suddenly plays host to a Tinseltown heartthrob. Sticking with her slam-dunk formula of normal girls who get caught up in not-so-normal circumstances, Cabot spins another yarn worthy of red-carpet treatment, this time featuring junior Jenny Greenley, an Indiana native who writes for the school newspaper's anonymous advice column and has a knack for smoothing over bad situations. When Jenny is asked to be "student guide" to Hollywood teen celeb Luke Striker -- who's in town, undercover, to research his next film role -- she only wonders how they'll ever keep his identity secret. Sure enough, the cat's soon out of the bag, and Jenny shakes her world when Luke convinces her to use her influence at school for positive change. Of course, the book wouldn't be complete without a thread of romance for Jenny, too, and the author delivers a smart, surprising ending for her legions of fans. With all the makings of another winner, this stand-alone novel should satiate your appetite for lighthearted fare, Cabot style. The book delivers tantalizing events, realistic characters, and a good message to chew on, making for a solid read that will keep you snickering the whole time. By the end, you'll feel happier than a Best Actress winner on Oscar night. Shana Taylor

Publishers Weekly

In a starred review, PW wrote, "Cabot's brisk and bubbly tale explores what happens when teen heartthrob Luke Striker attempts to spend a week posing as an ordinary high school student in a small Indiana town." Ages 12-up. (Aug.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

KLIATT

To quote the review of the hardcover in KLIATT, July 2004: Jen is a high school junior in a little town in Indiana, a kind, nice, "girl-next-door" type in whom everyone confides. In fact, she's secretly the school newspaper's advice columnist—with a crush on Scott, the paper's editor. Jen is great at keeping secrets, which is why the school authorities ask her to be the student guide for movie star/teen heartthrob Luke Striker, who is coming to town incognito to research a role as a Midwestern high school student. And if you can buy that premise, the rest of this delightful confection will slip down as easily as an ice cream sundae. Cool, gorgeous Luke doesn't remain anonymous for long, and all the girls go crazy for him—except for Jen, who cares only for Scott, and wins him in the end, of course. But Luke does have an effect on Jen; he encourages her to stir things up instead of always smoothing things over, and to express her feelings. My 16-year-old gobbled this up, and said she thought it was even better than Cabot's Princess Diaries series. It shares the charm of the teen speak and the first-person narration of that popular set of books, and the same wry, self-deprecating sense of humor. Sure to be popular with Cabot's many fans. KLIATT Codes: JS*—Exceptional book, recommended for junior and senior high school students. 2004, HarperTrophy, 291p., . Ages 12 to 18.
—Paula Rohrlick

VOYA

High school junior Jen Greenley solves problems. Everyone counts on her to settle disputes, calm hysterical tears, and generally be the girl-next-door, liked and trusted by all. So it is no surprise when Jen is asked to be the student guide for a new boy at Clayton High. What does surprise her is that the new guy is really teen superstar Luke Striker in disguise. Luke is making a movie about high school, but having grown up on television, he knows nothing about real teens. Luke's identity is revealed before long, but he sees enough to be appalled at the vicious hierarchy of high school. He challenges Jen to make changes, and she responds by helping the class loser, standing up to the popular football captain, and defending herself from a verbally abusive teacher. This thoroughly enjoyable story will engage teen readers even though parts strain the limits of credibility. It is difficult to believe that no one has guessed that Jen is the secret author of the Ask Annie advice column of the school paper. It is also difficult to accept that Jen, ever the peacemaker, does not try harder to mend fences with her best friend. Jen's own romance is predictable but satisfying. Luke, the teen idol, is a relatively minor character. The story is really about Jen learning that the nice girl does have the power to make a difference, especially in her own life. Cabot does her usual excellent job of creating believable characters that act and sound like real teens. VOYA CODES: 4Q 5P J (Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses; Every YA (who reads) was dying to read it yesterday; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9). 2004, HarperCollins, 304p., and PLB Ages 12 to 15.
—Heather Pittman

Children's Literature

Jenny Greenley, the school mediator, the town go-between, and all-around good girl, finds herself in a sticky situation when teen idol Luke Striker shows up in disguise at her school. Luke is rehearsing for a role for his next movie and comes to her town to experience a regular teenager's life. Asked by the principal to escort Luke around school, Jenny must keep Luke's identity a secret, even from her best friend who has a major crush on this superstar. On top of this, Jenny must also keep her own personal secrets that threaten to tear her to pieces. She is the anonymous advice columnist for the school paper and is also in love with a guy who is dating someone else. Can she keep all of these secrets and maintain her own sanity? Jenny is not so sure she can, and it is becoming harder and harder to maintain the cool demeanor that she is known for. Teens will get caught up in the drama as Jenny discovers her own strength and her own heart. 2004, HarperCollins, Ages 12 to 17.
—Zeta Shearill

School Library Journal

Gr 7 10-Nothing much happens in the small town of Clayton, IN. At least not until major teen heartthrob, 19-year-old Luke Striker, comes to town to research a part for a new film project. Jen Greenley, a junior at the local high school and all-around friend to everyone, is assigned to show him around. The only problem is that no one besides Jen is supposed to know who he really is. Between keeping his identity a secret, lying to her best friend who's Luke's biggest fan, writing the advice column for the school paper, and developing a crush on her friend Scott who happens to already have a girlfriend, Jen is feeling a little overwhelmed. The characters are funny and engaging and the dialogue is just right; both elements redeem the somewhat predictable plot.-Ginny Collier, Dekalb County Public Library, Chamblee, GA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

When hunky television and movie actor Luke Striker goes undercover to Clayton, Indiana, to research the life of a typical high-school student for a movie he's about to star in, Jen Greenley, everyone's best friend and the school's emotional fix-it girl, is considered to be level-headed enough to be let in on the secret. Assigned to be his student guide, Jen teaches the handsome heartthrob all about the mysteries of life in the slow lane, at least until his secret is uncovered, which also has the unintended consequence of making Jen a temporary celebrity. Author Cabot loves telling stories about ordinary girls who are unexpectedly thrust into a spotlight that gives them not only the chance to shine, but also illuminates hidden parts of their personalities. In this instantly engaging, humorous first-person tale, Luke acts as the catalyst to allow Jen, who has always gotten along with everyone at the personal cost of subjugating her feelings about kindness and fair play, to use her personal and social power to make high school a nicer place-and even find love in the process. Great fun. (Fiction. 12+)

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Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780060096182
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date: 7/26/2005
Edition description: Reprint
Pages: 320
Sales rank: 250,800
Age range: 13 - 17 Years
Product dimensions: 5.31 (w) x 8.00 (h) x 0.72 (d)

Meet the Author

Meg Cabot

Keeping up with Meg Cabot is tricky: the Princess Diaries author turns out light entertaining novels for teens and adults at a furious pace. Which is good news for her fans, who snap them up as fast as she can write them!

Biography

Meg Cabot knows that one of the best cures for feeling gawky and conspicuous is reading about someone who sticks out even more than you do. Her books for young adults invariably feature girls who have extraordinary powers that carry extraordinary burdens. Cabot's Princess Diaries series offers up the secret thoughts of Mia Thermopolis, who discovers at age 14 that she is actually the princess of a small European country. This revelation adds significantly to her extant concerns about crushes, friendships, school, and other matters falling under adolescent scrutiny.

Cabot, a native of Indiana weaned on Judy Blume and Barbara Cartland, was already a successful romance novelist (as Patricia Cabot) before she began writing for young adults; her alter-alter ego, Jenny Carroll, began a new series shortly after The Princess Diaries debuted. The Carroll books are divided between the Mediator series, starring a girl who can communicate with restless ghosts; and the 1-800-WHERE-R-YOU books, in which a girl struck by lightning acquires the ability to locate missing people.

Cabot writes her books in a conspiratorial, first-person style that resonates with her readers. She has obviously kept a grip on the vernacular and the key issues of adolescence; but what makes her books so irresistible is the mixing of the mundane with the fantastic. After all, who wouldn't like to wake up and be a princess all of a sudden, or a seer? Cabot takes such offhand notions and roots them firmly in the details of average, middle-class American life. She has also tiptoed into mystery and paranormal suspense with other YA novels and series installments.

Cabot continues to write adult novels under various permutations of her given name (Meggin Patricia Cabot): from 19th-century historical romances to contemporary chick lit. And, as with her books for teens, these romances have earned praise for their lighthearted humor and well drawn characters.

Good To Know

Some interesting outtakes from our interview with Cabot:

"I am left handed."

"I hate tomatoes of any kind."

"I really wanted to be veterinarian, but I got a 410 on my math SATs."

"Writing used to be my hobby, but now that it's my job, I have no hobby -- except watching TV and laying around the pool reading US Weekly. I have tried many hobbies, such as knitting, Pilates, ballet, yoga, and guitar, but none of them have taken. So I guess I'm stuck with no hobby.

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1. Also Known As:
  
  Meggin Patricia Cabot (full name); Patricia Cabot, Jenny Caroll
2. Hometown:
  
  New York, New York
1. Education:
  
  B.A. in fine arts, Indiana University, 1991
2. Website:
  
  http://www.megcabot.com

First Chapter

Teen Idol

Chapter One

I witnessed the kidnapping of Betty Ann Mulvaney.

Well, me and the twenty-three other people in first period Latin class at Clayton High School (student population 1,200).

Unlike everybody else, however, I actually did something to try to stop it. Well, sort of. I went, "Kurt. What are you doing?"

Kurt just rolled his eyes. He was all, "Relax, Jen. It's a joke, okay?"

But, see, there really isn't anything all that funny in the way Kurt Schraeder swiped Betty Ann from Mrs. Mulvaney's desk, then stuffed her into his JanSport. Some of her yellow yarn hair got caught in the teeth of his backpack's zipper and everything.

Kurt didn't care. He just went right on zipping.

I should have said something more. I should have said, Put her back, Kurt.

Only I didn't. I didn't because ... well, I'll get back to that part later. Besides, I knew it was a lost cause. Kurt was already high-fiving all of his friends, the other jocks who hang in the back row and are only taking the class (for the second time, having already taken it their junior year and apparently not having done so well) in hopes of getting higher scores on the verbal part of the SATs, not out of any love for Latin culture or because they heard Mrs. Mulvaney is a good teacher or whatever.

Kurt and his buds had to hide their smirks behind their Paulus et Lucia workbooks when Mrs. Mulvaney came in after the second bell, a steaming cup of coffee in her hand.

As she does every morning, Mrs. Mulvaney sang, "Aurora interea miseris mortalibus almam extulerat lucem referens opera atque labores," to us (basically: "It's another sucky morning, now let's get to work"), then picked up a piece of chalk and commanded us to write out the present tense of gaudeo, -ere.

She didn't even notice Betty Ann was gone.

Not until third period, anyway, when my best friend Trina—short for Catrina: she says she doesn't think of herself as particularly feline, only, you know, I'm not so sure I agree -- who has her for class then, says that Mrs. Mulvaney was in the middle of explaining the past participle when she noticed the empty spot on her desk.

According to Trina, Mrs. Mulvaney went, "Betty Ann?" in this funny high-pitched voice.

By then of course the entire school knew that Kurt Schraeder had Betty Ann stuffed in his locker. Still, nobody said anything. That's because everybody likes Kurt.

Well, that isn't true, exactly. But the people who don't like Kurt are too afraid to say anything, because Kurt is president of the senior class and captain of the football team and could crush them with a glance, like Magneto from X-Men.

Not really, of course, but you get my drift. I mean, you don't cross a guy like Kurt Schraeder. If he wants to kidnap a teacher's Cabbage Patch doll, you just let him, because otherwise you'll end up eating your lunch all by yourself out by the flagpole like Cara Cow or run the risk of having Tater Tots hurled at your head or whatever.

The thing is, though, Mrs. Mulvaney loves that stupid doll. I mean, every year on the first day of school, she dresses it up in this stupid Clayton High cheerleader outfit she had made at So-Fro Fabrics.

And on Halloween, she puts Betty Ann in this little witch suit, with a pointed hat and a tiny broom and everything. Then at Christmas she dresses Betty Ann like an elf. There's an Easter outfit, too, though Mrs. Mulvaney doesn't call it that, because of the whole separation-of-church-and-state thing. Mrs. Mulvaney just calls it Betty Ann's spring dress.

But it totally comes with this little flowered bonnet and a basket filled with real robin's eggs that somebody gave her a long time ago, probably back in the eighties, which was when some ancient graduating class presented Mrs. Mulvaney with Betty Ann in the first place. On account of them feeling sorry for Mrs. Mulvaney, since she's a really, really good teacher, but she has never been able to have any kids of her own.

Or so the story goes. I don't know if it's true or not. Well, except for the part about Mrs. M. being a good teacher. Because she totally is. And the part about her not having any kids of her own.

But the rest of it ... I don't know.

What I do know is, here it is, almost the last month of my junior year -- Betty Ann had been wearing her summer outfit, a pair of overalls with a straw hat, like Huck Finn, when she disappeared -- and I was sitting around worrying about her. A doll. A stupid doll.

"You don't think they're going to do anything to her, do you?" I asked Trina later that same day, during show choir. Trina worries that I don't have enough extracurriculars on my transcript, since all I like to do is read. So she suggested I take show choir with her.

Except that it turns out that Trina slightly misrepresented what show choir is all about. Instead of just a fun extracurricular, it's turned out to be this huge deal -- I had to audition and everything. I'm not the world's best singer or anything, but they really needed altos, and since I guess I'm an alto, I got in. Altos mostly just go la-la-la on the same note while the sopranos sing all these scales and words and stuff, so it's cool, because basically I can just sit there and go la-la-la on the same note and read a book since Karen Sue Walters, the soprano who sits on the riser in front of me, has totally huge hair, and Mr. Hall, the director of the Troubadours -- that's right: our school choir even has its own name -- can't see what I'm doing.

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Editorial Reviews

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Publishers Weekly

KLIATT

VOYA

Children's Literature

School Library Journal

Kirkus Reviews

Product Details

Meet the Author

Meg Cabot

Biography

Good To Know

First Chapter

Chapter One

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Teen Idol

Overview

Available on NOOK devices and apps Nook Devices NOOK HD/HD+ Tablet NOOK NOOK Color NOOK Tablet Tablet/Phone NOOK for Windows 8 Tablet NOOK for iOS NOOK for Android NOOK Kids for iPad PC/Mac NOOK for Windows 8 NOOK for PC NOOK for Mac NOOK Study NOOK for Web

All Available Formats & Editions

Customers Who Bought This Also Bought

More About This Book

Overview

Editorial Reviews

From Barnes & Noble

Publishers Weekly

KLIATT

VOYA

Children's Literature

School Library Journal

Kirkus Reviews

Product Details

Related Subjects

Meet the Author

Meg Cabot

Biography

Good To Know

First Chapter

Chapter One

Customer Reviews

5 Star

4 Star

3 Star

2 Star

1 Star

Your Rating:

Your Recommendations:

Barnes & Noble.com Review Rules

Reviews by Our Customers Under the Age of 13

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Reviewed by Spreeha for TeensReadToo.com

Havent read it yet but from the reviews its good

A-W-E-S-O-M-E :) ;) :P

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