Golden

April 15, 2013
In the last weeks of her senior year, buttoned-up valedictorian Parker Frost promises her adventurous best friend Kat that she will do something “Unexpected, worthwhile, and big” for once. While Kat was thinking of something along the lines of Parker hooking up with her longtime crush, another opportunity falls into Parker’s lap: she comes across the journal of “girl-turned-myth” Julianna Farnetti, a former homecoming queen presumed dead after a car crash with her boyfriend 10 years ago. Parker’s decision to read Julianna’s private thoughts and visit some of the sites mentioned in the journal causes Parker to consider that people aren’t always who they seem and that her own tendency toward obedience could have devastating effects on her future. Not unlike the snippets of Robert Frost poems that open each chapter and appear throughout, Kirby’s (In Honor) third novel is inspirational and contemplative in its mood and tone. Multifaceted characters and dashes of mystery and romance come together in a successful meditation on the value of taking an active role in one’s life. Ages 12–up. Agent: Leigh Feldman, Writers House.

March 15, 2013
The chance discovery of a private journal leads 17-year-old Parker Frost on a journey in which she finds out as much about herself as about the mystery she is trying to solve. Parker is a serious, hardworking high school senior whose goal up till now has been to fulfill her ambitious divorced mother's dream of a scholarship to Stanford. Reading the journal written 10 years earlier by a girl who supposedly perished with her boyfriend in a grisly accident, Parker finds clues in a painting that suggest that Julianna may still be alive. Some detective work leads Parker to the Kismet cafe, where Josh, aka Orion, works, the man Parker now believes to have been Julianna's true lover 10 years ago. Encouraged by her best friend and her longtime crush, Parker agrees to ditch school and try to find Julianna. A drive to the small hippie town of Harmony turns up the art gallery where the woman Parker believes is Julianna lives under the ironic name of Hope. Although her romantic plans fall apart, Parker learns an important life lesson. In her final dramatic career move, she takes the "road less traveled," mirroring the words of her namesake and favorite poet. Parker tells her story in the now-omnipresent present tense, unfolding it at a leisurely pace consistent with its theme of self-discovery. A satisfying counterpoint to conventional romantic teen fiction. (Fiction. 12-17)

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May 1, 2013

Gr 8 Up-Parker Frost, 17, is about to graduate high school feeling that all she has to show for it are her grades and being a finalist for a scholarship that will pay for a full ride at Stanford. Her best friend, Kat, her opposite in every way, pushes her to do something out of her comfort zone, but Parker has difficulty challenging her mother's expectations. When an English teacher asks her to help return senior-class journals to students who graduated 10 years earlier, she stumbles across the one written by Julianna Farnetti. Julianna and her boyfriend, Shane Cruz, were the town's golden couple; they were killed in an accident right after graduation, and the grief surrounding their deaths still permeates the small town. Reading the journal is Parker's first act of rebellion, but other small acts follow, including not writing her speech for the scholarship, lying to her mother, ditching class, and making tentative steps toward the boy she's had a crush on for years. The journal leads Parker to discover unexpected truths about Julianna and what happened to her, bringing closure not only to the young woman's story but to Parker's as well. The protagonist is a well-drawn and sympathetic character. Her struggles to find herself will resonate with many teens, and the faltering romance will draw readers in. Sure to be popular.-Kefira Phillipe, Nichols Middle School, Evanston, IL

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 1, 2013
Grades 8-12 *Starred Review* Each year Parker Frost's English teacher asks his senior class to journal a response to the question, What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? He then sends the journals back to his students a decade later. Parker knows what she's supposed to do: go to Stanford, hopefully on a scholarship in remembrance of Julianna Farnetti and Shane Cruz. The golden couple died in a car accident, their bodies swept away into an icy lake. Tasked to send out journals to former students, Parker is shaken that one of them is Julianna's. She can't resist reading it, and what she learns shocks her. Then clues appear that make it seem possible that Julianna didn't die that night. Kirby takes what could have been a predictable mystery and turns it into a duality: the perusal of Julianna's fate, and Parker's attempts to find her truest self in the swamp of her mother's hopes, her own fears, and the lure of the boy she's liked since middle school. This isn't perfect in the details; those that aren't easily addressed, like the whereabouts of Julianna's family, are skimmed over. Yet overall, the novel is rich in its characterizations, deep in its reflections about teenage life, and compelling as a mystery.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)