Fancy White Trash by Marjetta Geerling. (Grades 9+)Abby Savage knows that her family is white trash. Let's see. Her mom just got married to a guy Abby calls the Guitar Player because he used to be Abby's sister's guitar teacher. Abby's sister is pregnant. With the Guitar Player's kid. Oh, yeah, and Abby's mom is also pregnant. With the Guitar Player's kid. Abby's oldest sister is 21 and has a kid with a guy who ran off on her after they were married for just a few months.
And they all live together in a house that's Way Too Small.
This is why Abby's created the One True Love plan. It's her ticket to breaking the cycle of her messed up family.
Rule #1: Find Someone New. No recycling guys that your mom or sister has dated. Ick.
But it's not that easy to Find Someone New in a small town where you've known pretty much everyone for your whole life. Oh yeah, and when your old crush Jackson lives next door and has just come back from a summer trip to Nicaragua.
I really enjoyed this book. It's fun and funny but it deals with some serious stuff, too. Abby's pretty sure her best friend Cody is gay, even though he won't admit it, and he gets some fairly serious abuse from the kids at their high school. Abby wants to help him, but she has no idea how. Well, she has some ideas but none of them seem to work.
It was a fun read for me and the characters have a lot of heart. I'll definitely be keeping my eye on Marjetta Geerling. Check out her website.