| Title: So not happening Series: Charmed Life Series, Book 1 Publisher: Thomas Nelson Author: Jenny B. Jones Lexile: [?] TBD ATOS Level: [?] TBD Parent Rating: |
 Go For Age Range: 14-17 |
Synopsis
Isabella Kirkwood had it all: popularity at a prestigious private school in Manhattan, the latest fashions, and a life of privilege and luxury. Then her father, a plastic surgeon to the stars, decided to trade her mother in for a newer model. When her mother starts over with her new husband, Bella is forced to pack up and leave all she knows to live with her new family in Oklahoma. Before her mother can even say “I do,” Bella’s life becomes a major “don’t.” Can Bella survive her crazy new family? Will the school survive Bella? How can a girl go on when her charmed life is gone and God gives her the total smackdown?
Comments
A sweet book, nothing much to worry about in the content. Although this book is directed at a Christian audience, it is not overtly religious. Due to the mild nature of the content, I think kids as young as a mature 12 year-old would enjoy it.
Language
None
Sexual Content
Bella describes the ‘perv factor’ as low of a man who offers her a ride. Word use: adulterer (in reference to Hester Prynne from The Scarlet Letter). Brief kissing scene between teens.
Drugs/Alcohol
Mention of ‘being cut-off like Lindsay Lohan and the booze.’ Drug reference in how her room is decorated: ‘Designer smoked too much crack.’ Teen party with alcohol, though none of the main characters drink. A kid is suspended for having drugs at school, though we learn that they were planted to get him in trouble. A father, who is a drunk, calls his beer ‘liquid encouragement’. Bad teen uses family’s prescription medications to try to get another teen to look like she ate them to commit suicide.
Violence/Disturbing
Some mild peril when Bella is held at gunpoint, forced to swallow pills and write a suicide note-but all ends well.
Social/Family
Bella tries to stop her mother’s wedding after her parents get divorced when her father trades her mom in for a ‘newer model’. Dad’s girlfriends called “bimbo of the month club’ and ‘barely legal’; one has a name that Bella says ‘you know she has to be a stripper-it’s her destiny.’ Some social elitism, ‘We’re like two Paris Hilton’s stuck on Planet Wal-Mart’. Bella thinks a girl wants to be her friend because her dad (a plastic surgeon) could give her a ‘boob job’. Teens are blindfolded to go to a secret party. There is a joke about a transvestite being in a beauty party.
Religion/Spiritual
Most of the main characters describe themselves as ‘Christian’. They pray and attend a Bible study.
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