Take Me There

by Susane Colasanti
Hennepin County Library audiobook 6 discs
read by Macleod Andrews, Angela Dawe, and Sarah Grace
genre: YA realistic fiction, romance

I think what I like best about Colasanti's books are the catchy covers . . . the two stories I've read so far haven't really made me a fan. This one has three narrators telling the same story from their individual perspectives in two overlapping story chunks. James was my favorite character by far. I especially like his home life and connection to Mrs. Schaefer. Most of the hand-wringing by Rhiannon and Nicole is immature and overwrought. Nicole's very serious secret gets overshadowed by the angsty teen approach to everything from note-passing to crushing on her math teacher. The slang seemed horribly outdated, but perhaps it's coming back into vogue and I'm just not aware? At least this is "clean" enough for my middle school kids.