Thursday, January 22, 2009

Book Review: I, Lorelei by Yeardley Smith

11 year old Lorelei knows she’ll be famous one day so she begins a diary to her dearly departed cat Mud to help her future biographers get the details right. Most of Lorelei’s experiences are pretty typical for a preteen – she’s anxious about the school play, she fights with her best friend and she falls for the class heartthrob – but she also has to learn to be strong enough to deal with the break-up of her parents’ marriage.

I, Lorelei was written by Yeardley Smith, best known as the voice of Lisa from The Simpsons. She gives Lorelei an endearing, unique and authentic preteen voice with shades of Lisa’s intelligence and independent thought. Supporting characters are anything but stereotypical – I especially liked that the class heartthrob was kind and thoughtful, that the class reject/slob turned out to have the voice of an angel and that the class bully had a heart of gold despite his gruff exterior.

I, Lorelei will be released next Tuesday, January 27th in hardcover. I already enthusiastically passed my copy on to my favorite tween for her to enjoy.

14 comments:

Kristen M. said...

What a cute cover! I'm glad that there are more books (including the Benedict Society books) coming out that break the stereotypes that we see in so many youth books.

Shooting Stars Mag said...

I agree with Kristen. I like when books aren't stereotypical of certain people.

sounds like a really cute book!!!

-Lauren

Alea said...

That looks so cute, the concept, the author, the cover!

Anonymous said...

I really enjoyed this book, too. I thought Lorelei and her diary to Mud were delightful.

Janssen said...

I think passing a book on is one of the most lovely things you can do. I need to remember to do it more often.

RebekahC said...

This sounds very cute. I'll have to check for this one once it's out.

Ali said...

Oh, I was thinking this came out in December! Guess I should finish it and post my review. :-)

Thao said...

Cute book. I'mma tell my aunt to buy this one for my cousin.

Lenore Appelhans said...

Ali - the ARC does say December but I guess it got pushed back.

Ali said...

Thanks, Lenore. I'm glad I didn't bust my behind trying to get it read by the end of Dec., my timing will inadvertently be perfect. :-)

Bonnie said...

I have an ARC copy that I need to read...I am so behind! I wisht he ARC had this beautiful cover. This looks so good and should be a quick read. I like the idea of passing it on. I am going to do the same. My son is 10 and I doubt that he will want to read it!

Anonymous said...

I thought this book looked so cute when I first read about. Thanks for posting about it.

Teddy Rose said...

This sounds cute.

I added the link to the ARC Challenge post.

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