Like Mandarin

May 9, 2011
Fourteen-year-old Grace Carpenter feels trapped, living in the Badlands of Wyoming with her angelic half-sister and her social-climbing mother. Skipping ahead a grade in school and rejecting the beauty-pageant queen mold her mother encourages, Grace leads a fairly isolated and dull life, punctuated by an obsession with the capricious and edgy Mandarin Ramey, who represents both the adventure and self-assuredness that Grace lacks ("It was like she took pleasure in being a misfit. While I felt exactly the opposite," says Grace). When she's assigned to tutor Mandarin, an awkward friendship blooms. But when Mandarin's dark past rises to the surface, Grace must decide how far she will go to emulate her friend. Hubbard's first novel is replete with lovely imagery, with the Wyoming landscape being perhaps the most nuanced of her characters ("I'd wandered through the Washokey Bandlands Basin so many times I'd memorized the feeling. The forlorn boom of wind. A sky big enough to scare an atheist into prayer"). Grace's struggle to reconcile her past and present selves, along with her recognition of Mandarin's fragility, drives this lyrical coming-of-age story. Ages 14âup.

February 1, 2011

Mandarin Ramey is the girl everyone wants to be or be with. Everyone in the tiny town of Washokey, Wyo., is obsessed with Mandarin, but no one as much as Grace. At 14, Grace is bookish and awkward, the exact opposite of the wild and carefree Mandarin. When they are paired to complete a school project, it is a dream come true for Grace. Mandarin helps Grace find freedom, encouraging her to dance in the blizzard of cotton falling from the trees, skinny-dip in the canal and liberate the animal trophies decorating the grocery store. As Grace begins to emulate Mandarin's dress, attitude and wild ways, she must also confront the darker side of her new friend. Mandarin's life is steeped in fear, liquor and a large helping of lies. Grace forgives Mandarin at every turn, but a final betrayal proves nearly impossible to get past. The sparse landscape is the perfect backdrop for the richly detailed characters that populate this coming-of-age story. Grace's escalating relationship with Mandarin is so raw that it is painful to watch at times. Unfortunately, Grace's character is often overshadowed by the much more provocative and interesting Mandarin, making this more Mandarin's story than Grace's. An attempt to present Grace's take-away lesson at the end feels artificial. This is a good story that would have been better with a change of focus. (Fiction. 12 & up)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

April 1, 2011

Gr 9 Up-Growing up in the badlands of Wyoming, Grace Carpenter, 14, has longed for some way to escape the dullness of small-town life. Her mother, who long ago gave up her own dreams, is obsessed with child beauty pageants and focuses her attention on Grace's younger sister, Taffeta. In school, Grace has skipped a grade, making her even more of an outsider. She sees her chance for an escape of sorts when beautiful bad girl Mandarin Ramey, 17, is paired with her for a school service project. The two begin an intense friendship and spend hours discussing their plans to run off to California. However, Grace also becomes increasingly aware of how troubled the older girl is. She discovers that Mandarin lied when telling a gruesome story of how her mother committed suicide; in fact, Mandarin's mother is alive and writes letters that her daughter refuses to read. Even more distressing, at a local beer bash, Mandarin betrays Grace by setting her up in a situation that nearly leads to rape. As the novel concludes, both Mandarin and Grace find unexpected ways of resolving their relationships with their mothers and coming to terms with their dreams of escape. Hubbard uses beautifully evocative language, and the details of the badlands setting are perfectly realized. Even minor characters are complex and believable, but most compelling are Grace and Mandarin. The portrayal of the complexities and tensions of friendships between teenaged girls is spot on, as is the depiction of Grace's growing realization of female sexual power through her obsession with being like Mandarin. This excellent novel is a must for high school collections.-Kathleen E. Gruver, Burlington County Library, Westampton, NJ

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2011
Grades 9-12 When Grace Carpenter first felt Mandarin Ramseys pull, she was 6 years old. Now, eight years later, Grace envies 17-year-old Mandarins beauty and tough-talking, fast-and-loose fearlessness. Grace feels isolated and alone, both at school, where she is the youngest in her class, and at home, where her single mom is obsessed with Graces younger sister, a beauty-pageant competitor. When a school project pairs Grace and Mandarin, they develop a unique bond and friendship, sharing edgy, exhilarating moments, as well as a plan to escape their small Wyoming town. But as she is increasingly drawn into Mandarins world, Grace finds that her idol is not who she thought she was. Grace is well drawn and engaging, and her intimate, introspective, frank, and droll narrative zeros in on top teen concerns, from self-esteem and family complexities to peer pressure, loyalty, and fitting in. YAs will appreciate this sensitive portrayal of the ambiguities of relationships and the challenges of growing up.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2011
Studious fourteen-year-old Grace lives a lonely life in rural Wyoming with her momma and pageant-star little sister. Then she's assigned to help older town rebel Mandarin graduate. A whirlwind friendship ensues, and she sees that there's much more to Mandarin than beauty and scandal. Their turbulent relationship is well-crafted and heart-wrenching; Grace's consequential self-awareness is a satisfying, genuine-feeling conclusion.

(Copyright 2011 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)