Paisley Hanover Acts Out

This was a fun book...not just because of the way it was written, but because of knowing who it was written by. I went to school with Cammie. I was one of those drama misfits and also had an amazing crush on one of the soccer stars. She was one of my idols, being a couple grades ahead of me. I can't wait for my daughters to be old enough to read it too! Then they will know what high school was like for us back then! I knew she was talented then...and see that she still is today! Keep up the good work Cammie. Debbie E.

What can I say. The author and I went to the same high school. The book is a flash back to those days. She even has diagrams of the school layout.

When I first picked this up, I hadn't seen any reviews and figured it would be a mediocre attempt at portraying high school life. As usual, I was completely wrong. At the beginning of the novel, Paisley seems like your average high school student that runs with the in-crowd. In just a few chapters, you see a different side of her. A side that disagrees with the things her "friends" do but goes along with it just because she wants to be liked. But after hanging out with certain members of the "un-crowd", Paisley decides it's time to make a change in the way her school works, and that's when her character becomes someone most of us aspire to be like. She steps up, does what she thinks is right, and sticks up for the people who need. I found myself laughing hysterically at certain points in this novel (this was definitely a bad choice to read during the PSSA's at school) and I just couldn't put it down. Not only was Paisley a fun character to read about, the other characters, even the ones who didn't have big roles, were unique and I can guarantee you won't ever find such a random crowd in any other books. There's not much more for me to say about this other than I really enjoyed it and if you've been thinking about picking it up, now if the time to do so. (I hear the final copy has some really cool packaging!) I'm anxiously awaiting the sequel.

This is one of the best-written, quirkiest YA books out there--a perfect blend of wit and teen-survival wisdom. Or, as Paisley Hanover might put it: it's all about how to win friends and Un-fluence people. The packaging skews younger, with pop appeal for tweens, but the novel itself is sneakily sophisticated. The narrator is an optimist, a big dreamer, and is on track to be remembered as "the girl most likely to embarrass herself in public." But fifteen-year-old Paisley has a lot to give, and her dawning understanding of her true talents, and of her ability to bring people together, is what gives this book its heart. Try reading the book aloud, if you can pry it away from your kid--you will gather an audience.

Ok, not only do you get a really hilarious novel - about a girl who battles the popular high school crowd in a totally new and unique way, you also get Paisely Hanover's Notbook in one very cool case. The Notbook is full of doodles, notes, and Paisley's inner thoughts about what is going on in the novel. It makes the novel even more fun, seriously! And there is even an amazing website - www.paisleyhanover.com. Cameron Tuttle, you rock!