Geek Magnet ****

Scott, Kieran. Geek Magnet: A Novel in Five Acts. 2007

KJ is the stage manager of her school's Spring Musical and she has one big problem-- she is a geek magnet. She doesn't lack for male attention but she seems to get all the guys she DOESN'T want, while the one guy she wants doesn't seem to know she is alive. There is Fred, her neighbor who has been following her around for years. Then there is Andy, her Assistant Stage Manager. Then there is Glenn, the kid on the light crew who stares only at her boobs and touches her inappropriately.

Tama, one of the popular girls who happens to have a lead in the play is friends with Cameron, the love of KJ's life. Tama manages to get Cameron interested in KJ. She also offers to help KJ get rid of her guy problem by teaching her to be mean. She manages to get the geeks to back off, but she ends up hurting a lot of feelings along the way and also manages to alienate herself from her best friend and most of the cast in the process.

Meanwhile, KJs father is an alcoholic. He drinks every day and is often mean. The entire family is on eggshells trying to keep him from flying off the handle. Her younger brother Chris is a mess all the time and her mother seems to be oblivious. The alcoholism seems to take a backseat to the whole drama of the musical and doesn't get the treatment it might deserve. I guess the point of the novel was to be fun, so the focus was more on the musical drama and not on the social issues. It makes me wonder if it really needed to be in there to begin with, but that's just a small criticism and it doesn't take away from the novel at all.

Me and Orson Welles ***

Kaplow, Robert. Me and Orson Welles. 2005.

Why this book was recommended by School Library Journal is beyond me. I don't imagine any teenager would be interested in reading this. In fact, I can't imagine many people would be interested in reading it.

The book follows a week in the life if Richard Samuels who lives in NJ. In an unlikely turn of events, he is cast as Lucius in an Orson Welles production of Julius Caesar. He has to skip school to get to the rehearsals and the performances. He falls in love with Sonja and gets involved in the drama that is the theatre.

I am not sure if the goal of the book is to be coming of age story or a story that exemplifies how crazy Orson Welles was. Either way, it doesn't matter because I don't think either angle is working very well. I also find that most teens aren't all that interested in historical fiction so I don't think a 1930s NYC theatre novel would fly off the shelves of many libraries. I would skip this book unless you have some sort of fascination with Orson Welles.

In the Cards: Fame ****

Fredericks, Mariah. In the Cards: Fame. 2006.

I didn't realize this was a part of series until I started reading it. The first book was In the Cards: Love. Unlike some other series, however, this book is fine all on it's own; the reader doesn't have to have read the first book in the series to understand what is happening in this one.

The school is abuzz when the music teacher, Mr. Courtney decides to put on the first musical the school has ever had. Eve, a total drama queen auditions for the show and does get in. Her friend Anna is the stage manager and their other friend Syd is also brought in to help out with playing the piano. The show is filled with drama right from the beginning with backstage fights, romance, and feuds. The star of the show has a famous father and starts to fall apart; it's not clear whether or not she will be able to perform at all. All the while, Eve keeps wondering what will happen because the tarot cards predicted something, but she's not sure how it's going to happen.

I recommend this for middle school/early high school girls interested in the theatre or performing, or girls just interested in reading a story with a whole lot of drama and backstabbing.