Prom

by Laurie Halse Anderson

Overview

Philadelphia high school who doesn’t care about the prom. It’s pretty much the only good thing that happens there, and everyone plans to make the most of it—especially Ash’s best friend, Natalia, who’s the head of the committee and has prom stars in her eyes. Then the faculty advisor is busted for taking the prom money and Ash finds herself roped into putting together a gala dance. But she has plenty of help—from her large and loving (if exasperating!) family, from Nat’s eccentric grandmother, from the principal, from her fellow classmates. And in making the prom happen, Ash learns some surprising things about making her life happen, too.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101157244
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	02/02/2006
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
Lexile:	HL690L (what's this?)
File size:	1 MB
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Laurie Halse Anderson has received both the Margaret Edwards Award and the ALAN Award for her contributions to young adult literature. She has also been honored by the National Coalition Against Censorship in recognition of her fight to combat the censoring of literature. She is the author of the groundbreaking National Book Award finalist and Printz Honor Book Speak. She is also author of the critically acclaimed YA books Prom, Twitsted, Catalyst, Wintergirls, and The Impossible Knife of Memory. She has also authored a number of middle grade titles including The Vet Volunteers series, and the historical fiction Seeds of America Trilogy, which includes Forge, ALA Best Book for Young Adults Fever 1793, and the National Book Award finalist and Scott O’Dell Award-winner Chains. She and her husband live in northern New York State. Follow Laurie on Twitter @halseanderson and visit her at madwomanintheforest.com.

Read an Excerpt

1.

Once upon a time there was an eighteen-year-old girl who dragged her butt out of bed and hauled it all the way to school on a sunny day in May.

2.

That was me.

3.

Normal kids (like me) thought high school was cool for the first three days in ninth grade. Then it became a big yawn, the kind of yawn that showed the fillings in your teeth and the white stuff on your tongue you didn’t scrape off with your toothbrush.

Sometimes I wondered why I bothered. Normal kids (me again), we weren’t going to college, no matter what anybody said. I could read and write and add and do nails and fix hair and cook a chicken. I could defend myself and knew which streets were cool at night and which neighborhoods a white girl like me should never, ever wander in.

So why keep showing up for class?

Blame my fifth-grade teacher.

Ms. Valencia knew she was teaching a group of normal kids. She knew our parents and our neighborhood. Couple times a week she’d go off on how we absolutely, positively had to graduate from high school, diploma and all (like the GED didn’t count, which was cold), or else we were going straight to hell, with a short detour by Atlantic City to lose all our money in the slot machines. She made an impression, know what I mean?

Every kid who was in that fifth-grade class with me was graduating, except for the three who were in jail, the two who kept having babies, the one who ran away, and the two crack whores.

The rest of us, we were getting by.

I was getting by.

4.

It had been a decent morning, for a Tuesday. No meltdowns at home. The perverts outside the shelter left me alone, and the Rottweiler on Seventh was chained up. A bus splashed through the puddle at the corner of Bonventura and Elk, but only my sneakers got soaked. It could have been worse. At least the sun was shining and some of my homework was done.

So I got to admit, I was in a half-decent mood that morning, dragging myself and my butt to school.

I had no clue what was coming

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"...teens will love Ashley's clear view of high-school hypocrisies, dating and the fierce bonds of friendship." Booklist, starred review

Interviews

Q&A with author Laurie Halse Anderson

Where were you born?
Potsdam, NY way up in Northern New York state.

Where did you go to high school?
Fayetteville-Manlius High School in Manlius, NY and the Hong Studenter og HF Kursus in Hong, Denmark. (Note the "o" in Hong should have a diagonal line through it - it's one of those funky Scandinavian vowels.)

Were you a good student?
Ha. Oh, ha.

What were you like when you were growing up?
Quiet.

What were your favorite books?
Science fiction and fantasy

What was your family like?
Struggling. My parents loved us, but they had many, many complications in their lives from their jobs and other painful personal stuff going on. My sister and I were on our own a lot.

Are any of your other characters based on you or your family?
I think the sense of humor is like that of my family's. We are very good at laughing.

Did you go to your prom?
I went to my junior prom, and to the junior prom of my boyfriend. He went to a different school. The theme at mine was, no joke, "Stairway to Heaven". It was the '70s. For my senior prom, I was in Denmark. No proms there, just a lot of pigs and great pastry.

How much do you think proms have changed over the years?
People pour way more money into them, but I think the overall experience is the same. It can be a blast or a nightmare. A lot of it has to do with having realistic expectations, and making sure you hang out with people you like, instead of being somebody that you're not.

If you could take any president/celebrity to the prom, which one would you choose and why?
I'd take Ashton Kutcher because he looks like he'd be a lot of fun.

If you went to the prom this year, what would you wear?
Something that shows off my biceps.

Did you do anything special to gear up for writing about Prom?
Went back to my favorite research spot - the food court at the mall.

What's your advice for making prom the most memorable night?
Stay sober. Nothing says "Prom Loser" quite like vomit on a four hundred dollar dress.

Do you have a favorite place to write?
I can write pretty much anywhere. Listening to my iPod helps me write in crazy places like airports.

What's on your Ipod?
You're kidding, right? I have 2 days worth of music and a collection of David Sedaris essays. The artists who are played most often include Joan Osborne, Natalie Merchant, Pachabel, Sting, Nirvana, the Allman Brothers, Dave Matthews and U2. Oh, and Bruce. This gadget qualifies as my number favorite toy of the century. I would rather have an iPod than a microwave, I swear.

Do you have plans to write any more books?
Oh, yeah!!!! I got a million of them!

What were some of your previous jobs before you became an author?
Best job - milking cows. Worst job - stockbroker. Job I'd go back to if I quit writing books - newspaper journalist... or maybe milking cows. You don't have to deal with obnoxious people on a dairy farm. You just have to watch where you step.

Editorial Reviews

Ashley Hannigan's plans for the future don't include the senior prom; they include things like squeaking through to graduate, moving out of her parents' crowded house and into a Philadelphia apartment with her high school dropout boyfriend. Those plans change when Miss Crane, the math teacher, embezzles all the prom money. Before she can say, "Too weird," Ashley finds herself choreographing a school gala that changes everything. Tender; funny; perceptive.

Ashley thinks of herself as a normal kid: best friend next door, hot, but unreliable dropout boyfriend, parents a bit spacey, and a household barely hanging in there. She's not into the prom the way her best friend Natalia is, so when it nearly gets cancelled because a teacher has absconded with all the money, Ashley is not prepared for Nat's approach. Nat figures they can still have a prom, if they beg for stuff and get teachers to help and bribe the custodial staff and so on. Rather against her will, Ashley gets sucked into the lists in Nat's pink notebook. It delights her very pregnant mom; it makes dealing with all those detentions and uncompleted assignments even more of a chore; it focuses Nat's slightly addled Russian grandmother on dressmaking; and calls Ashley's hilarious aunts to the fore. Modern teen life just outside Philadelphia is vividly drawn in Ashley's first-person tale, and it's both screamingly funny and surprisingly tender. It's also full of sly throwaway references: oaths taken on a copy of Lord of the Rings instead of a Bible, Ash's dad singing Aerosmith, accounts that read, "he was all . . . I was all . . . then he was all." Expect teen readers to be quoting aloud to each other, and giggling. (Fiction. YA)

Kirkus Reviews

"Modern teen life just outside Philadelphia is vividly drawn in Ashley’s first person tale, and it’s both screamingly funny and surprisingly tender. Expect teen readers to be quoting aloud to each other, and giggling." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

From the Publisher

When the math teacher embezzles the money that was meant to pay for the prom, the prom committee is forced to find some creative ways to make the big dance happen. Katherine Kellgren’s narration is perfection. She portrays heroine Ashley Hannigan with a brassy attitude. Ashley, who is in danger of not graduating due to a high number of detentions, reluctantly agrees to work on the prom committee. Kellgren convincingly expresses Ashley’s frustration as she tries to balance her family relationships, boyfriend, after-school job, the prom, and her plans for the future. Kellgren also delivers full portrayals of Ashley’s offbeat family and dead-end boyfriend, as well as the school’s evil vice principal. K.M.D. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine

OCT/NOV 06 - AudioFile