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A review by library_brandy
The Center of the Universe: Yep, That Would Be Me by Anita Liberty
3.0
There’s a lot a teenager can relate to in this lightly-fictionalized memoir of the author's junior and senior years of high school: the frustrations of not having a boyfriend, the frustrations of having boyfriends who are less interesting up close than they were from afar, the frustrations of having parents who move their teen daughter across a city to a loft apartment with no privacy, the frustrations of having parents who enroll their daughter in summer acting classes but also don’t make a big deal over a poor score on the SATs. On balance (and Anita does keep the parental scorecard, weighing their infractions against their compensations), Anita knows she doesn’t have it too bad.
The book is put together with a combination of things: diary entries, parental scorecards, SAT words (and sample sentences related to Anita’s current dramas, mostly relating to boys), and some exceptionally bad poetry. The voice is authentic (I’m sure if I looked at my own high school journals I wouldn’t see a lot of differences), but that’s not the same as being compulsively readable. Some teens will find Anita’s teenage self engaging and funny, though there are undoubtedly others who will find her annoying. There’s not much foul language, but mentions of sex and sexuality, while not graphic, are frequent enough to make this a better choice for upper-high-school students rather than younger teens.
The book is put together with a combination of things: diary entries, parental scorecards, SAT words (and sample sentences related to Anita’s current dramas, mostly relating to boys), and some exceptionally bad poetry. The voice is authentic (I’m sure if I looked at my own high school journals I wouldn’t see a lot of differences), but that’s not the same as being compulsively readable. Some teens will find Anita’s teenage self engaging and funny, though there are undoubtedly others who will find her annoying. There’s not much foul language, but mentions of sex and sexuality, while not graphic, are frequent enough to make this a better choice for upper-high-school students rather than younger teens.