Anything but Normal by Melody Carlson (Book Review)

Title: Anything but Normal
Author: Melody Carlson
Publisher: Revell

My synopsis: Sophie was a good kid - popular, pretty, good grades, chief editor of the school paper - but she had a big secret. She was pregnant. She had taken a purity pledge at her church with her group of girlfriends. But that was before she was a counselor at camp with Dylan. Dylan had told her he loved her, had said all the right things - and they had only had sex twice.

She hides this secret from everyone, her family, her teachers, even her best friends, and Dylan. After writing an article about teen pregnancy, she takes a lot of flak from the school's teen pregnancy center - so she is enlisted to write an article after spending some time their and interviewing the girls who attend classes there. The lessons she learns are invaluable, but what will she do about her own secret?

My thoughts: I liked Sophie and I liked the fact that the author showed that even Christian kids can be led astray. She emphasized in the book that the purity pledge was more about your heart and your relationship with God - and that a promise made out loud is just words and words can be broken. I hope that makes sense - I am having a tough time putting into words what I mean this morning. This was a good book - one that I think all teen girls should read - especially if they say "That could never happen to me. . ."

Available January 2010 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

~I received this book for review from Baker Publishing Group.~

Anything but Normal
Publisher/Publication Date: Revell, Jan 2010
ISBN: 978-0-8007-3258-5
254 pages

Teaser Tuesday: 2-16-2010

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:
Grab your current read.
Let the book fall open to a random page.
Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you have given!
Please avoid spoilers!








Acting as if nothing was unusual, she turned and carried the large, hot pink package of pads to the registers, getting into the line with only one woman in it. As it turned out, the pads she'd chosen were some kind of supersized, mega-absorbent, recommended-for-elephant-use sort of product. (p52, Anything but Normal by Melody Carlson)







Anything but Normal
Publisher/Publication Date: Revell Books, Jan 2010
ISBN: 978-0-8007-3258-5
254 pages

Anything but Normal Blog Tour (Feb 7 - 13)

A Gripping Novel That Showcases the Other Side of Teen Pregnancy:
She was smart, well-liked and about to start her senior year. But now she has a secret to keep hidden and a broken heart in need of healing.

Melody Carlson is able to write to teenaged girls in ways that tap into their greatest hopes, fears and struggles and, through the tales of her beloved characters that quickly become like BFFs, help readers make sense of the confusing and complicated world around them.

This is no less true than with Carlson’s latest release, Anything But Normal:

Sophie is your normal, average high-school girl who attends church and gets good grades. The summer is wrapping up and while she should be counting down the days to the start of her senior year, she’s anything but excited. What Sophie’s in need of right now is a fresh start.

While her best friends are worried about what to wear and the cutest guy in school, Sophie’s got bigger concerns—like the secret she’s keeping about what happened this summer. She’s about to find out that she won't be able to keep things under wraps much longer.

In this page-turning novel, Carlson offers readers a realistic and heartwrenching vantage point into the messy and emotional world of teen pregnancy. Readers can relate with Sophie who just wants to be normal and loved, but now must figure out how to deal with the consequences of what has happened.

Melody Carlson is the award-winning author of over two hundred books, several of them Christmas novellas from Revell, including her much-loved and bestselling book, The Christmas Bus. She also writes many teen books, including Just Another Girl, Anything but Normal, the Diary of a Teenage Girl series, the TrueColors series, and the Carter House Girls series. Melody was nominated for a Romantic Times Career Achievement Award in the inspirational market for her books, including the Notes from a Spinning Planet series and Finding Alice, which is in production as a Lifetime Television movie. She and her husband serve on the Young Life adult committee in central Oregon.

Watch for my review coming this week!