Prom is fun!

I admit it. I loved the prom, and I love Prom by Laurie Halse Anderson.

Many years ago, I went to the proms my sophomore-senior years. My favorite thing about them was putting together my outfits. Dates and the actual proms were secondary. :) For my senior prom, I wore a vintage white eyelet lingerie dress, a family heirloom. My mom made a pink satin sash to go with it and I wore a ring of pink rosebuds in my updo. I loved getting together an entire look, from gown to jewelry to shoes. I loved going out to a fancy restaurant on a double date with my best friend.

Unlike me, Ashley in Prom, doesn't want those things. She doesn't care about the foof and the sparkle and what she really wants is to get out of school and move in with her boyfriend, T.J., and out of her family's noisy house. But, when the school's budget for the dance disappears, Ashley's best friend Nat is desperate for help in scraping together some kind of prom, no matter what. Things get awfully busy for Ash as she works as a dancing rat in a pizza parlor, staves off T.J.'s alarming apartment choice, handles her crazy, loving family, worms her way out of her many detentions and plans for the year's biggest dance, which she may not even attend.

Prom is an enjoyable read whether you're attending your first prom, blowing it off, or waxing nostalgic like I am. For added pleasure, try listening to the audio version, read by Katherine Kellgren. She does a terrific job bringing the character's off the pages!