PROM by Laurie Halse Anderson

Ashley is not your typical prom-obsessed high school student. She is more concerned with how she will manage to make up all of her assigned detentions before graduation. Her next door neighbor and best friend Nat, on the other hand, is completely obsessed with prom planning. When the prom sponsor steals the funds, Ashley finds herself in the unlikely spot of helping her friends plan the prom in a matter of days. Eventually everything comes together, and Ashley attends the prom and has a much better time than expected.

My favorite thing about this book is Ashley’s relationship with her family. Since the story is written in first person and Ashley is known to exaggerate, I first thought that her family was going to be rather dysfunctional. As I read about her interactions with her parents and brothers, I realized that they were just a regular working class family. Laurie Halse Anderson does an excellent job of demonstrating their love for one another through their actions rather than just their words. Although I did not enjoy it as much as Speak, Prom was a funny and entertaining read.