Vegan Virgin Valentine

June 21, 2004
Mackler's (The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things
) latest tale starring a strong female protagonist centers on Mara Valentine, who is headed to Yale and vying with her ex-boyfriend, Travis Hart, for valedictorian. Enter wild niece V, who is only a year younger (the daughter of Mara's sister, who is nearly 20 years older) and who moves in with Mara's family. The two get off to a bad start when V hooks up with Travis, and Mara gets worked up over V's gross habits and pot smoking. But the young women stick up for each other in unexpected moments, too (such as when Mara crosses out some nasty graffiti about V). The plotting here follows a familiar path: when Mara falls in love with James, the 22-year-0ld owner of the café where she works, she sees there is more to life than grades, while V, finally in a stable environment, begins to fulfill her "unrealized potential" by landing a part in the school play. While some readers may identify more with rebellious V than with Mara ("You sure are wound tight," V says to Mara), the two characters begin to deepen and mature through the course of the novel, and the audience may well warm up to Mara. There are some hilarious moments here, too; Mara, for example, who became vegan in order to stop obsessing over her ex, dreams of cheese and wakes up with lips that "tasted salty." Readers won't find anything groundbreaking here, but they will likely be entertained along the way. Ages 14-up.

belpiz1617 - “Sometimes the best thing you can do is not think, not wonder, not imagine, not obsess. Just breathe and have faith that everything will work out for the best” The main character in my book, Mara has a lot of stress in the time of the book, as it goes on she learns to not worry so much and rely on the world some. The title of my book is Vegan Virgin Valentine by Carolyn Mackler. This story takes place in Brockport, New York, and heading to Yale sometime in the 2000’s. I would say that the protagonist is Mara and her niece, V. I think that one of the antagonists are Travis Heart, Mara’s ex-boyfriend because Mara doesn’t really like him and Mara and Travis are running against each other to be valedictorian. One of the conflicts in the story are that Mara’s niece V is coming to live with her and Mara doesn’t like her. Another conflict is that Mara is scared to tell her parents (Mostly her dad) that she is dating Josh who is 3 years older older than her, and Mara’s boss and Common Grounds. Another problem is that V’s mom who is Mara’s sister keeps changing her job and moving chasing after all of the boys she has met along the way so V has had to handle with being the new kid at almost 12 twelve different schools. The main turning point in the story is where some things get better and V tries out for the school play, “Damn Yankees” because Mara and her parents are proud of V and she feels more important in the school. I would recommend this book to people that like realistic fiction books just like I do and I think that this book was perfect for me because I really enjoyed it and also there are a LOT of strong language and some intense scenes. But other than that I loved reading this book and will probably read it again in the future.