Well, in Review 30, I asked what happened to good ole books like the ones Judy Blume wrote, and with Misfit McCabe, I got my answer!

LK Gardner-Griffie is a clever author who has truly embraced the “tween” readers of today with a rambunctious young lady they will certainly relate to.  Katie McCabe, the main character, is a rebellious fourteen year old tom girl looking for trouble.  And most of the time, she gets exactly what she’s looking for!

Timmy Lawrence (I can just hear that name being yelled out the back door by an angry mother!) is Katie’s best friend and partner in crime!  Right from page one, the author shows you these two are up to no good.  They are in a neighbor’s shed with a flask of rum to spike their Cokes…and they toast to their adventures in smoking as they light up cigarettes!  Like any child, they become entranced by the flame when they start playing with the matches and end up catching the hay in the shed on fire.

Playing with fire, drinking stolen booz, trying cigarettes for the first time…the friendship between Timmy and Katie definitely brought back memories.  I can recall the next door neighbor’s grand daughter who only visited during the summer.  I was always anxious for her arrival, and even more anxious for her departure by the end of the season.  She was pure evil!

When she wasn’t persuading me to steal eggs or kitchen matches to make magic potions, she was pulling me around the yard in a cardboard box and busting my head on the rocks when the box split open.  I seem to recall a collection of Garbage Pail Kid trading cards that also went missing from my room one year shortly after she visited!

More importantly, Katie does not lie about her involvement in the shed burning when her father questions her.  Very smart!  After all, her father is the town sheriff.  He sends Katie to live with his brother, her Uncle Charley who also happens to be very strict.  With a house full of cousins, the trouble has just begun.  But when Katie starts up a friendship with her older cousin, Sarah, who helps Katie through those “changes of life,” Katie really begins to mature and change.  But this certainly doesn’t happen in a day.

In the meantime there are new friends to make and new enemies.  A battle of wits pursues between Katie and and a nasty little snot named Harvey Denton Jr.  He’s the local banker’s son and enjoys letting everyone know it.  He also enjoys seeking revenge against Katie.  Cheating, lying, stealing…the list goes on and on of obstacles Katie must continue to face, even though she is trying her best to be the better person.

LK GG moves her story along with well versed dialogue and has penned an array of characters who are each interesting and unique in their own way.  Her descriptions of the predicaments Katie faces practically on every page are complex (and often seem unfair) to a 14 year old, but provide enough excitement and detail to keep a reader of any age interested.

Despite Katie being a few years younger than my own niece, I plan to purchase a copy of this book for her as she turns 17 this year.  There are situations and outcomes here that any teen could (and will) face, and Misfit McCabe is a character who high school readers will relate to and learn from.  This book would make an excellent gift for those just about to enter high school and begin that often troublesome phase of life.

Kudos to LK for embracing this age group.  Katie McCabe is a character who I hope to visit with again soon!

For a preview of Misfit McCabe click the Read Now button below:

DeGrassi Junior High, DeGrassi High, Saved by the Bell, 90210, Dawson’s Creek…the list goes on and on of irresistible melodramas which have sought to capture the essence of teen life through the years, often with a high school setting since those four years of a teenager’s life can certainly be ever changing.  I know mine were.  These days, our brains can’t fathom these made up tales and we wanted to hear from real people, people like us, so we handed kids a camera and told them to go film their “real” stories.  But we’ve discovered reality isn’t any better.  But that’s television!  What books were your reading in high school?  Were there any that stick out in your mind, that possibly changed your life at that time?

I was stuck in a Stephen King phase in high school, determined to read every word he’d written even if it took me four years to do it.  So, to research what kids are reading these days, like any computer literate American, I Googled it.  When googling “teen novel,” I was quickly redirected to several best selling lists composed by various people at Amazon.com….Princess Diaries, some girl named Alice, Harry Potter, the Twilight series…what ever happened to Blubber, Freckle Juice, and It’s Me Margaret?

Back then, it was “just say no,” pimples, and popularity.  These days it’s teen pregnancy, guns in school, and more drugs.  And even though more stories these days are based on fantasy and vampires, there is one theme that hasn’t changed through the years. Acceptance. Kids till vy for popularity and attention.  They all want to be #1.  That’s why I found Robert Toonkel’s book, Chappaqua, to be a classic take on those old themes from what teens were reading yesterday but still a timeless fresh, and eye-opening, look at teens in today’s high school setting.

Based on the cover alone – a pale robin eggshell blue with a picture of a statue, obviously some important dignity somewhere, and dark blue letters with a subtitle that reads “Slight imperfections in America’s perfect town” – you’d probably think this was going to be a history lesson on some corrupt political figure or East coast war that textbooks forgot.  Even the simple title, Chappaqua, sets you up for either an unknown community piece no one but locals would care about or some piece of Kennedy-like Peyton Place gossip.  But all of these assumptions are completely wrong.

Instead, it is the story of Katie Fitzpatrick.  She’s about to be a senior, and she’s the girl everyone else desires to be.  She has perfect grades, great looks, lots of friends, she’s an all-star athlete and writer for the school paper.  She’s the center of attention among the girls and the guys. It’s the all-American dream for any teen on the verge of their final year of high school.  But sometimes people like that probably wish they were dreaming.

Now, Katie may sound like a predictable character sketch we all know (or personally knew while in high school), but Toonkel paints his characters with such realism and belief that it makes this story new all over again. The author pushes his narrative forward with excellent use of dialogue, interesting description, and a touch of humor.  Imagine over hearing bits of a hundred conversations in the hallway between classes or at prom, but being able to understand everything with great accuracy.

The mod system, which always included “J mod” for homeroom, had given rise to a new language on the Greeley campus, one whose mastery required both time and skill. Visitors from other schools might think they were on another planet when they heard students asking one another, “Can we do this during QRS?” or “Do we have five-mod biology today?” Plenty of Greeley students had graduated with an advanced knowledge of calculus or chemistry, but no idea whether a TUV class began at 12:50 or 12:55.

Toonkel uses his setting, the town of Chappaqua, as an ideal place where such a perfect student can grow up in the perfect town.  But, he throws a wrench into its well oiled wheels which sends Katie’s real life dream spinning out of control.  Conflict builds as Katie falls deeper into trouble after one single “life-altering” event, and seeks understanding and guidance from the very community that denies anything could be wrong.  After all, they’ve put Katie on a pedestal and made her the center of attention (imagery conveyed quite beautifully on the book cover).  How could anything be wrong?

There are valuable lessons here for both parents and teens, as we experience one young girl’s drastic fall from the top.  Sure, most of us didn’t like the cool and the popular if we weren’t part of them, but they may still need people to turn to when they aren’t crying wolf.  Regretting reaching out to them after it’s too late is not something any teen should suffer from. After all, no matter how much we excell at, we still all breathe the same air and need a friend to count on from time to time.

Although quite long and still in need of a bit of editing, Toonkel’s story is original and well thought out. The last chapter alone will have you thinking about Katie for a long time after you’ve closed the cover. Thanks to Robert Toonkel for creating an excellent and inspiring read for teens of today, and yesterday.  This book is a lesson in life every teen shouldn’t learn the hard way.