*And A Few White Lies

Patty Ho is a girl after my own heart. I wish I'd known her and her buildering roommate in MY high school career. As a proud member of the Knowledge Bowl, Science Olympiad, and Youth in Government I had my fair share of nerd camps/field trips. None of them measure up to the extra-curricular activities of Patty and friends at the Stanford Math Camp (except for maybe my high school robot team's trip to Boston where I got to spend most of it necking in a van on the MIT campus. But using the word 'necking' negates whatever hipness I'd hoped to garner...as does the fact I was on a robot building team.)

Back to Patty.

The beginning of the book involving Patty's home life is so funny and so painful, I laughed and cringed at the same time. Luckily, there is some healing at the end--go get the book.

Patty is consistently witty and spot on with her dramatic teen insecurities during the ups and downs of a math camp summer. Keep reading to see how Patty grows into her own skin. I'm not giving the details away, which are fresh and poignant and hilarious for a YA novel, but an ending is so rewarding when you see a character shine brighter then she thought she could even though you ALWAYs knew she had it in her.

Justina Chen Headley is a powerhouse on her own. Check out her lovely website, her awesome book marketing blog, AND an amazing new joint venture on MySpace that is going to do great things for books, girls, and the world.

Jaime