So Yesterday

Scott Westerfeld has done it again. This book is so funny and so clever. The form of the book is very interesting. It is written in first person and everything goes by very quickly. Unlike most books like this, So Yesterday actually has a plot, and a good one at that. The book combines great ideas, a great plot and great writing to create one great book. I recommend this book to all readers.

"Never give us what we really want. Cut the dream into pieces and scatter them like ashes. Dole out the empty promises. Package out aspirations and sell them to us, cheaply made enough to fall apart." ~ SO YESTERDAY Cool is the new black. Oh nevermind. Scott Westerfeld's young adult novel SO YESTERDAY is a clever chase after what exactly is cool and who defines it, or (perhaps better said) who finds it. Teens either want to be told what is cool, or they want to tell the world what is cool. After all, everything cool had a beginning and a beginner, a starter, a creator, an innovator. See, the world divides up nicely: Innovators Trend Setters Early Adopters Consumers and Laggards (aka Classicists). Cargo pants...wide belts that don't go through any loops...gaucho pants...propeller hats (okay, so that never really caught on)...patches with safety pins...heelies...wife beaters...chained-up wallets...etc. Wrack your brain for the most obscure trend, and someone started that too. Our friend Hunter is a trend setter in search of an innovator, and he finds one in standard, logo-exile Jen. And after he finds her, his weekend spirals into a frenzied flight from the anti-client (No, I'm not going to tell you about them) and a welcomed discovery of who he hasn't known he is. Until now. Until Jen. Reviewed by Jonathan Stephens

I loved this book. I really shows you how we live today. When one person wears or displays something they think is cool, it suddenly spreads like wild fire. This book is awesome and I encourage teens to read it.

Seventeen-year-old Hunter is aptly named. He's actually a "cool hunter" --- a Trendsetter whose job is to find "the latest thing" and make it a must-have for everyone. He meets Jen, a true Innovator (defined as the first person to do something totally new) when she dazzles him with her stylishly tied shoelaces. Hunter takes Jen to a focus group to watch a shoe commercial, where she gives such startlingly insightful comments that Hunter's boss, Mandy, asks them both to meet her in Chinatown to consult on a big deal. Mandy doesn't meet Hunter and Jen, although they can hear her phone ringing ominously inside an abandoned building. The two make like action heroes (but bungling believably and humorously) to get into the building. Inside it's dark, but using the light from Hunter's cell phone, they find Mandy's phone, the most amazing shoes ever made --- and a frightening bald man who chases them. During their escape, Hunter loses his own phone. So what's become of Mandy? The last picture taken on her phone is dark and blurry, and potentially horrible. Luckily Hunter's friend is a special effects computer expert. As they're deciphering the photo, Mandy's phone rings...and it's the sinister guy who chased them earlier. He has Hunter's phone and he may be a killer. How long will it be before he tracks down Hunter? The action nabs readers instantly and tumbles them along. Hunter's biting and hysterical cultural insights invite serious contemplation (you may never look at a magazine or a logo the same way!) Characters are quirky and believable --- you have to love a main character who calls the public library's reference desk to learn how to tie a bow tie and can also discourse entertainingly on the history of the necktie. Add into the mix a bit of romance that manages to be simultaneously subtle and steamy. In this story, if a trend is astoundingly original and hip, cool hunters give it the Nod. SO YESTERDAY is sooooo Nod-worthy. --- Reviewed by Terry Miller Shannon ([email protected])

"The guy walking past was wearing a shirt five sizes too big (innovated by gangbangers to hide guns in their waistbands), shorts down below his knees (innovated by surfers to save their thighs from getting sunburned), and oversized shoes (innovated by skaters to save their feet from injury). Together all of these once-practical ideas made the guy look like he'd been hit by a shrink ray and was about to disappear into his clothes screaming, 'Help me!' in an ever-tinier voice." Why did our ninth grader begin wearing pajama pants to school? Why, when she wears them, must the top of those pajama pants be folded over just so, to reveal the tag and the inside of the waistband? Why did Target start carrying rack after rack of pajama pants in dozens of patterns? How about a couple of years ago, when all of the kids I knew began either buying peds or feeling compelled to fold their regular white socks down into their shoes so that no part was revealed to the public? Why did they begin to lace their shoes in a manner that caused the kids to fall out of them every fifth step (or to land on their faces if they actually tried running in them)? Why, also a number of years back, did an army of girls begin wearing sweatshirts over only their arms? It doesn't matter at which middle school I booktalk. Wherever I look, the kids will simultaneously begin making the same "fashion statement." And does anybody really think that Britney, Madonna, Christina, or Beyonce themselves think up those looks that are eagerly copied by millions? "One thing about being a Cool Hunter, you realize one simple fact: Everything has a beginning. "Nothing always existed. Everything had an Innovator." Hunter Braque is a Cool Hunter. Jen Jones is an Innovator. Their chance meeting in Manhattan's East River Park leads to a wild and intense three day roller coaster ride for the pair, and takes readers on a reality trip into the big stakes world of fashion fads and trends. I'm no babe in the woods, myself. I'm a guy with a degree in Business, who once earned an "A" in Marketing as manager of the group that won that semester's computer-simulated car manufacturing competition. But I picked up all sorts of fascinating information while my eyes were glued to SO YESTERDAY. For instance, Hunter tells this story which actually ties in with those three days we follow Jen and him through New York City: "Start with a mollusk, wind up with an empire. "Sounds tricky, but the Phoenicians managed it about four thousand years ago. Their tiny sliver of a kingdom was wedged between the Mediterranean Sea and a vast desert: no gold mines, no olive trees, no amber waves of grain anywhere in sight. The only thing the Phoenicians had going for them was a certain species of shellfish, commonly found lying around down at the beach. These shellfish were tasty but had one problem--if you ate too many of them, your teeth turned purple. "Naturally, most people were annoyed by this. They probably said s