Winston, S. (2008). The Kayla Chronicles. New York: Little, Brown and Company.

9780316114318

188 pages.

Appetizer: Kayla has just started high school, but she has big plans to become a journalist. Her best friend, Rosalie, knows just what she should write about for her first expose. Rosalie wants Kayla, a gymnast and (secret) dancer, to try out for the high school dance team, to expose them for only allowing the curvier girls to join the team. Rosalie hopes that when Kayla (who is lacking curves) is rejected from the team then they'll be able to expose the dance team for their vile ways.

Things don't quite go as Rosalie had planned. First, Kayla didn't really want to go along with the plan to begin with. Second, Kayla makes the dance team. It quickly becomes apparent that the two may be growing apart as friends.

I absolutely loved Kayla's voice in the book. She was strong, honest and feminist and willing to question her beliefs and why she had them. All this was very refreshing. And while she initially had trouble telling her friends what she was thinking, she didn't have a problem telling the reader. Some of the time, she did feel too wise for a fourteen-year-old, but that can be explained away by the fact that she is also a genius (not just according to her, but also to "Broward County, the state of Florida and a 4.5 GPA" (p. 25)).

Her family is funny and quirky and so are her friends. And Kayla balances the pressures others put on her with her desire to belong, be a strong, independent woman and find out who she is as well.

I loved that Kayla presented herself as a feminist from the very beginning. On page two, she narrates: "When I, Mikayla Alicia Dean, soon to be fifteen, think of feminism, I think of strong females taking action--even when that action goes against the girly-girl mold society assigns us" (p.2). She goes on to breakdown some stereotypes of what readers may expect a feminist to look like.

Kayla is also dealing with her first romance as well. Her reactions to the boy she likes are often innocent, honest and over-the-top embarrassing. (So, I could see two or three embarrassing things happening in the midst of going from you know I exist? Really? to girlfriend-boyfriend. But Kayla's interactions with Roger Lee are less along the lines of those "ugh, I can't believe I said that" moments of cringiness and are closer to the "Will he still like me? Will he ever speak to me again? The horror! THE HORRROR!" level of embarrassment.) It was a little much for me by about the fourth time something SUPER-embarrassing happened to her. I'm sure other readers would say those were their favorite moments though. I personally was cringing on Kayla's behalf.

Throughout the book, Kayla describes the website her and her friends have created or her list of favorite books on listmania. With all the online references, I was surprised to see there was no website devoted to the book. Little Brown, get on that. It could be a great avenue for readers to discuss the book and the ideas in it.

Also, I chose to read this book because the plot involved Kayla joining the dance team. I was kind of surprised that the actual dancing didn't really have a place in most of the story. There's a description of a routine here or there, lots of mentions of sweating through practices, but I was left wanting more. (My WIP involves dancing. So, my current research is to see how other authors incorporate it. How explicit are they about the steps? Does their writing make me want to dance? Stuff like that.)

Dinner Conversation:

"Stankalicious!
Allow me to define it:
Stank-a-le-shus--derived from stank, slang for stinker; 1) the art of being stank; 2) one who behaves in a manner so overboard, so bigger-than-life outrageous, so self-deluded, well, it could only be considered stankalicious.
And stankalicious, the newest word in my book of Kayla-isms, describes my best friend, Rosalie, to a tee" (p. 1).

"The "doom my future" part is that she wants me to try out for the Lady Lions dance team--the It girls of our new school. She wants me to prove how they won't let ordinary girls like me on the team. So my goal is to fail, thus supporting her theory while turning me into a huge "Who Not to Be Like" poster.
Rosalie was all "ooo" and "ahhh" and "power to the people," and I'm like, "hmm, you have a lot of nerve, sister-girl. A. Lot. Of. Nerve."
I didn't say it out loud, though.
I should have, but I didn't" (p. 3).

"So it was official:
My boy-breasts were about to become political prisoners in a high-stakes game of Popularity Death Match.
Breasts so small shouldn't be so much trouble" (p. 12).

"IF you're concerned with how others are seeing you, don't be. It'll make you crazy. Your confidence, your power, will come from looking inside and trusting yourself" (p. 91).

"My head buzzed with voices. Rosalie's voice and what she wanted. JoJo and what I thought she wanted. Miss Lavender and her comments about my look and what she wanted. Even my Mom's voice. I could hear them all buzzing in my head, telling me what was best for me, telling me how to be Kayla" (p. 108).

Tasty Rating: !!!! ( )

Have you ever been in a situation where you had to choose between two things you’re passionate about? Or have you ever been in a situation where your best friend is trying to get you to commit to something you don’t think is right, but you’re too scared to say anything? Well that’s what fourteen year old Kayla Dead has to do. Kayla is a freshman in high school trying to fit in. But her best friend, Rosalie, is making that a pretty hard task. Rosalie never lets Kayla share her opinion and Kayla is too scared to man up and disagree with Rosalie. Also, Rosalie makes Kayla try out for the lady lions, a dance team, but Rosalie is actually just using Kayla for an experiment. By the end of the book, Kayla has to choose between a very important club that she and Rosalie came up with, or follow her dream of dancing with the lady lions. Kayla does her best to try and figure out which decision is best for her but does she end up picking the wrong decision? Along with having to make that decision, she has many other obstacles thrown her way. Kayla is faced with some family issues. After Kayla’s grandma JoJo died, Kayla has felt even further away from her family and her family has felt even further away from her. Will Kayla ever feel like part of the family?
This book wasn’t my favorite book but it was very enjoyable. I recommend this book to teenage girls who like books about decision making and the trials of growing up. Also, if you like reading about drama and how people solve their problems this would be the perfect book for you. ( )

Reviewed by Katie Hayes for TeensReadToo.com

Aspiring journalist Kayla Dean and her best friend, Rosalie, are committed to feminism and fighting the injustices of society. Rosalie's latest plan is one that will push Kayla out of her comfort zone: Kayla will try out for their school dance team in order to prove their hypothesis that the Lady Lions only take girls with “big, luscious breasts,” and Kayla will write an expose for the school paper.

But Kayla, a great dancer who has never quite gotten her confidence level to the point where she's comfortable performing, is in for a shock when, despite wearing an A-cup, she makes the team. Even more surprising is her realization that she likes being a Lady Lion and enjoys getting dressed up and wearing cute outfits. Now she has to find a way to reconcile her long-held beliefs with her newfound hobby - and to do so without losing her best friend.

I liked this book because it takes a fairly ordinary high school situation and makes it interesting with a distinct, funny style that reflects the main character's personality. Kayla tends to think in headlines, like “Kayla Dean Infiltrates Dance Team. Senate Probes Plight of Itty-Bitties. A-cups Get Their Due!” She also invents so many of her own words and phrases that there's a “Lexicon of Kayla-isms” at the end of the book. Kayla-isms include “blind-sexy: when someone looks so good even a blind person would go, ‘Mmm!'” and “dis-bliss: the point at which bliss gets run over by the dump truck of disgrace.”

Kayla is a funny, memorable character, and the book's theme - "the ability to retain one's femininity while still fighting for women's rights" - is one that will resonate with readers. ( )

This book is hilarious! What a great sense of humor the author has! Great for a high school library looking for positive books for African American girls. ( )

how do you justify being a feminist and being on the school's dance team? That's what Kayla Dean has to figure out while juggling her first kiss, almost losing her best friend and learning to be part of a family again.

I loved the "Kayla-isms" and the way the story was written. Between the dialog and the plot each of the characters were very believable and honest. ( )