Anna and the French Kiss

by Stephanie Perkins
Hennepin County Library audiobook 8 CDs
read by Kim Mai Guest
genre: YA romance

This one is much more tame than the author's Lola and the Boy Next Door. Now I know which readers to booktalk which title to . . .

Anna's author dad sends her to school in Paris for her senior year. She loves neatness, film, and her best friend Bridget (back in Atlanta, GA). She doesn't speak any French and doesn't know anyone at her new school. She quickly makes friends with Meredith, Josh, Rashmi, and Etienne St. Clair.

At first, I was struck by how very young Anna seems - more like a fourteen-year-old than a seventeen-year-old. But then I thought of how often I've been uncomfortable reading about younger teens acting like much older ones . . . and it's nice to have this more innocent character.

Likes:
- details (old films, bananas and elephants, etc.)
- Paris!
- Etienne
- friendship and romance
- narrator's vocal work - superb!

Dislikes:
- repetitive whining
- pointless "pain" at imagined slights
- generally juvenile approach to relationships

More scraps of paper found in car (added 11.8.16):
Anna is painfully young and immature for a high school senior (but a nice change from an unnaturally worldly 15 y.o.) The first two chapters are vapid and irritating. The author actually uses the term "the female race" - wow. This was slow to get going. Almost boring at first.

Lola and the Boy Next Door

by Stephanie Perkins
Hennepin County Library audioCDs 7 discs
read by Shannon McManus
genre: YA romance, relationships

Delores prefers to be called Lola, has two dads (Nathan and Andy) for parents, dresses outlandishly, and has a 22-year-old rocker boyfriend named Max. Into this mix, her next door neighbors move back in after two years away. Calliope Bell is a world-class figure skater and snob. Her twin brother Cricket broke Lola's heart and she has spent two years hating him. But hatred is not the feeling he evokes . . .

I enjoyed this book a lot. Lola is too immature in terms of communication and relationships, but the attraction between her and Cricket builds slowly and powerfully. Her relationship with Max seems unlikely and the breakup scene was less horrible than I anticipated. Overall, a very interesting story.

Monsoon Summer

by Mitali Perkins
CMSW, paperback, 257 pages

Jazz (Jasmine) is falling in love with her friend and business partner, Steve. Her mom wants the family to spend the summer in India, working at an orphanage.

I enjoyed this book more than I expected. Jasmine was an interesting character (though I wish she would have worked up the courage to tell Steve about her feelings for him a little earlier) and it was nice to see how she changed her stance on helping others.

A little bit of romance and a lot of soul-searching, Perkins shows the remarkable differences between America and India without it seeming forced.