Mixed Bags

Title: MIXED BAGS
Author: Melody Carlson
Publisher: Zondervan
May 2008
ISBN: 978-0-310-71488-0
Genre: Inspirational/young adult

When DJ’s mother died, her father abandoned her, forcing her to live with her grandmother, an internationally famous 1960s fashion model. Now, Mrs. Carter has opened a boarding home for young ladies, and tomboy DJ is sure they will all be snobs.

DJ makes a few tenacious friendships, and one enemy, Taylor, when she and Taylor are both interested in the same guy. When DJ is asked out a date first, Taylor is devastated, and sets out to ruin DJ. As DJ struggles against her grandmother turning her into a fashion diva, and struggles to find her place in the house with all the girls living there, will she be forced to change to fit in? And if she does, what will the ramifications be?

MIXED BAGS is book one in the Carter House Girls Series. I was excited to hear about it, thinking at first that it was a chick lit. Judging by the cover, it easily could be. At first I was disappointed to find it was a young adult chick lit. Ms. Carlson has a habit of tackling extremely tough topics in her young adults, making them iffy reading for me. There were parts of this book I wasn’t really fond of, but it wasn’t has hard-core as some of Ms. Carlson’s other books, and DJ handled herself well.

I think that MIXED BAGS would be a good addition to any young girl’s library, and I know my twelve year old daughter is looking forward to reading this book. The faith message is well introduced, and while I couldn’t relate to most of the girls, I did enjoy getting to know them. Don’t miss MIXED BAGS. An excerpt from Stealing Bradford, the second book in the series is included at the end of the book. $10.79. 198 pages.