Reviewed by Jaglvr for TeensReadToo.com
Kat(ima) is invisible at Tabor High. Or if not exactly invisible, then freaky Yoga Girl. And her best friend is the girl that wears the crazy hats. And to make matters worse, her mom owns Midwifery. It's a New-Age type midwife service that allows pregnant women to birth at home naturally. Her mom simply goes by Abra. No last name, just Abra. Kat helps out there twice a week doing various office duties.
The story starts off with Abra calling Kat up and begging her to assist with a birth. Kat has never done that before, and the couple having the baby is pleased to have Kat there. However, Kat fumbles through everything and makes a mess of it all. Her mom doesn't want her along any more, and in a fit of rebellion, Kat quits, agreeing to stay on until her mom is able to find a replacement. So junior year for Kat isn't off to a great start.
Things may be looking up though when her crush of the last few years, Manny Cruz, asks her a question in Spanish class. Kat can count on her hand the number of interactions she's had with him previously. What started out as one innocent question soon turns into random meetings around town, and then soon the two are secretly dating. But at school, neither acknowledges the other.
Enter Libby Giles, the beautiful "it" girl of the senior class. Libby has just broken it off with her boyfriend, Mitch. No one knows the full story, but it's obvious to all that Mitch was not the dumper, but the dumpee. In what turns into frequent chance encounters, Mitch and Kat keep running into each other. They soon form a hesitant friendship, and Mitch turns to Kat for advice in getting Libby back. An added plus to the friendship is that Manny and Mitch are friends, and Mitch actually approves of the secret friendship Manny and Kat have.
During the course of the school year, there are ups and downs for Kat at school, with Manny, at home and with her best friend, Christy. The day Libby enters the Midwifery, everything Kat has assumed about others is thrown out the window. She must re-evaluate everything she has known and understood.
Kat is a wonderful character that the reader immediately comes to love. Through her highs and lows, the reader is constantly rooting for her. All along the reader knows that Kat is stronger than she realizes, and the self-acceptance she gets in the end makes you want to stand up and applaud for her. Read FACT OF LIFE #31 and you too will come to learn that maybe there really aren't any true facts of life. Or are there?
Kat(ima) is invisible at Tabor High. Or if not exactly invisible, then freaky Yoga Girl. And her best friend is the girl that wears the crazy hats. And to make matters worse, her mom owns Midwifery. It's a New-Age type midwife service that allows pregnant women to birth at home naturally. Her mom simply goes by Abra. No last name, just Abra. Kat helps out there twice a week doing various office duties.
The story starts off with Abra calling Kat up and begging her to assist with a birth. Kat has never done that before, and the couple having the baby is pleased to have Kat there. However, Kat fumbles through everything and makes a mess of it all. Her mom doesn't want her along any more, and in a fit of rebellion, Kat quits, agreeing to stay on until her mom is able to find a replacement. So junior year for Kat isn't off to a great start.
Things may be looking up though when her crush of the last few years, Manny Cruz, asks her a question in Spanish class. Kat can count on her hand the number of interactions she's had with him previously. What started out as one innocent question soon turns into random meetings around town, and then soon the two are secretly dating. But at school, neither acknowledges the other.
Enter Libby Giles, the beautiful "it" girl of the senior class. Libby has just broken it off with her boyfriend, Mitch. No one knows the full story, but it's obvious to all that Mitch was not the dumper, but the dumpee. In what turns into frequent chance encounters, Mitch and Kat keep running into each other. They soon form a hesitant friendship, and Mitch turns to Kat for advice in getting Libby back. An added plus to the friendship is that Manny and Mitch are friends, and Mitch actually approves of the secret friendship Manny and Kat have.
During the course of the school year, there are ups and downs for Kat at school, with Manny, at home and with her best friend, Christy. The day Libby enters the Midwifery, everything Kat has assumed about others is thrown out the window. She must re-evaluate everything she has known and understood.
Kat is a wonderful character that the reader immediately comes to love. Through her highs and lows, the reader is constantly rooting for her. All along the reader knows that Kat is stronger than she realizes, and the self-acceptance she gets in the end makes you want to stand up and applaud for her. Read FACT OF LIFE #31 and you too will come to learn that maybe there really aren't any true facts of life. Or are there?
