My first SSR novel for the year is called, Diary Of A Teenage Girl. This novel is about a teenage girl, Kim. When Kim was six months old, she was adopted from Korea because her mother had health problems which made it an issue to get pregnant. Kim is the only child in the Peterson family. Now, she is a junior in high school and got her license last year. Since then, Kim has been saving up her money to buy a car. Her parents said they would chip in for the car and match however much she saved only if she kept a clean driving record. Clean driving record includes no tickets of any kind. But one day, Kim was running a little late to her last day of work and had to drive her mother's car. She was driving 72 in a 55 mile zone. A cop ended up pulling her over and giving her a speeding ticket. Kim, knowing if she wanted her own car she could not get tickets, started freaking out and tried thinking about how she was going to break the news to her parents. She went to her dad first and told him everything that happened. Kim cried and apologized over and over again. Her dad finally gave in but with one catch. He told Kim he would keep the ticket between them two only if she wrote the advice column for Teen Beat in his newspaper. On page 7 Kim says, "I never would've guessed that my own father would resort to using blackmail against me.". Kim thinks that it is completely stupid but has to agree to it if she still wants to buy her car. Kim starts the column anonymously and calls it "Just Ask Jamie". She starts answering some kids' letters. Some were about parents, dating, depressions, and people that are users. So far Kim has been able to handle every letter she gets and finally gets her car, a yellow Jeep Wrangler.
The most important character in the story is Kim. Kim is the character in the story that has to deal with the most conflict. If I was in Kim's situation, I would definitely do the advice column so I could get a car. But the advice column is a lot of responsibility. I predict that Kim is going to get a letter about something she can not handle. I predict after she gets this letter she is going to be scared how to answer it.
Would you agree to do the advice column if you were in Kim's situation or would you pay the fine and not be able to get a car? Do you think it was right of Kim's father to keep the speeding ticket between them two and allow her to buy a car? How do you think Kim's mother would react if she found out about the speeding ticket?
If I was in Kim's position I wouldn't have told my parents. I would've faught the ticket in court (or tried to) and used some of my saving to pay off the ticket if I needed to. But doing the advice column isn't a bad punishment at all, she gets away with the ticket and she still gets her car and she gets to be in everyone's business (and help them). I might read this book it seems pretty good I'm curious what kind of questions she gets and how she answers.
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