Mari Mancusi Sk8er Boy

Sk8er Boy

Mari Mancusi

Smooch, Oct 2005, $5.99

ISBN: 0843956046

Fifteen years old Dawn Miller cannot believe that perfect grades, shopping with her girlfriends and joining every highly regarded extracurricular activity sanctioned by her parents is all there is to life. She is bored and tired and figures Harvard, her parents' goal for her, is still a few years away. Dawn decides it is time to break out of prison, but she must hide her escape from "The Evil Ones" who will punish her by a combination of grounding her and increasing her Harvard bound activities. Still sneaking out of the yearbook committee meeting is easy but to what remains the question.

What is answered when she makes a new friend Starr, who introduces her to world of parking garage skateboarding. This is an exciting rebellious act on Dawn's part, but revolution is farthest from her mind when she meets intelligent and nice sk8er Sean McNally. She knows The Evil Ones would denounce this heart throb as a punk from the wrong side of town, but then again they would censure any boy wanting to date her before she graduates from Harvard.

SK8ER BOY is a fabulous look at a teen in rebellion from her parents who have orchestrated every nanosecond of her life targeting Harvard as their child's only goal. Dawn is terrific as she is a teenage chick lit heroine providing asides and soliloquies about her life and the evil wardens who dictate her entire existence. Mari Mancusi cleverly captures the needs of youth seeking freedom in this delightful contemporary tale.

Harriet Klausner