You just wonder why she finds the Billings girls so admirable. She's got guts and determination and when the chips were down she realised that there were things that she wasn't prepared to do. There are a lot of the themes which interest and concern girls in their early teen – friendships, relationships with the opposite sex and how to cope in a difficult environment – and although I might not find Reed admirable as a heroine, she's definitely going to appeal to her peers. In fairness there are good messages about the perils of alcohol and Reed is definitely against drugs.īut – this is a good story and it's going to appeal to teenage girls if not necessarily to their parents.
OK – we know that life works out this way some of the time – but it is disheartening to read about it. Getting in with the 'right' crowd comes down to being a doormat. Sex? Well, that seems to be without consequences. Getting her grades up to scratch doesn't come down to hard work but to working out what the questions are going to be, to discovering the quirks of the teachers. Well, she won't do anything but it's not far short. This girl has the difficult background but she decides straight away that she wants to be a Billings girl – that's the elite clique – and she'll do whatever she has to do to become one of them, or even just to be tolerated by them. I had mixed feelings about Reed she's not the traditional Cinderella figure who comes from a poor background and makes good through her virtues. Well, some of it's good, some of it's bad and some of it is downright ugly. Throughout her childhood it was easier not to have friends and to keep herself to herself, but that's not going to be the way forward at Easton. She's close to her father, but her mother is a pill-popping nightmare who thinks nothing of humiliating her. She also discovers that being one of the brightest students in her old school is simply not enough to get by at Easton, where some of the students are terrifyingly bright. Publisher: Simon and Schuster Children's Booksįifteen year old Reed Brennan wins a scholarship to Easton Academy, a co-ed boarding school, only to realise that everyone there is rich and sophisticated. It is, though, a good story - and part of quite a long series. Summary: Set in an American co-ed boarding school, Private will appeal to teenagers more than their parents, with its mixed messages about the consequences of your actions.
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