Defending Taylor

May 15, 2016
When a Tennessee senator's daughter is expelled from her posh prep school, she faces challenges at her new, public high school.Seventeen-year-old Taylor, a white girl, has always been the perfect student. She's an ace soccer player, maintains a 4.2 grade point average, and has an SAT score of 1520. She's determined to follow family tradition by going to Yale and then working in its investment business--but now she has to do it without Dad's help, and the classes at her new school don't compare with those at her private school. Meanwhile, a possible romance looms with her childhood heartthrob Ezra, also white and well-to-do. But she can't shake the stigma of expulsion. She was found with drugs, and she can tell no one that she was actually covering up for her boyfriend, Ben, so the white boy would not lose his scholarship. She carries on as best she can, but she finds herself wondering if she even knows what she really wants. Worse, will Taylor's mistake have an impact on her father's re-election? Kenneally effectively evokes the stress experienced by the college-bound, including drug use to enhance performance. She also explores class issues--but not racial ones--as Taylor adjusts to her new school, but this exploration is undercut by the way Ezra and Ben are played off each other.Read it for Taylor's journey but not for anything deeper. (Fiction. 12-18)

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July 1, 2016

Gr 9 Up-Seventeen-year-old Taylor Lukens has life all figured out. Captain of her soccer team, president of the debate team, and daughter of a Tennessee senator, she dreams of early acceptance to Yale. However, she gets expelled from her prestigious boarding school after she takes the fall for her Adderall-dealing boyfriend. Before Taylor knows it, she's back at home and starting over at Hundred Oaks High, friendless and forced to play defense on the soccer team that used to be her rival. Torn apart by the damage that she's done to her father's reelection campaign and her relationship with her parents, the teen refuses to tell the world that she is innocent, thinking that her father will view her as a snitch, the worst fate of all. But then she reconnects with her old crush, Ezra Carmichael, and he inspires her to question all of the truths that she has held dear. On the surface, this work presents itself as a formulaic yet totally enjoyable summer read. However, this title has depth. Kenneally frankly discusses the realities of Adderall, Ritalin, and other drugs, and the sexually charged relationship between Taylor and Ezra feels authentic and unique compared with the cookie-cutter teen romances that this volume initially seems to resemble. VERDICT Purchase for collections in need of sports fiction, deeper summer reading, and realistic romance.-Laura Lintz, Henrietta Public Library, Rochester, NY

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