Peace, Love, and Baby Ducks by Lauren Myracle

Title: Peace, Love, and Baby Ducks
Author: Lauren Myracle
Publisher: Dutton
Reading Level: Young Adult, 12+
Publication Date: May 14, 2009
Pages: 254
My Edition: ARC
Amazon Page

Rating: B-
Plot - 15/20
Characters - 16/20
Writing - 17/20
Originality - 15/20
Entertainment - 9/10
Recommendation - 9/10
Total: 81/100

Summary:
Growing up in a world of wealth and pastel-tinted entitlement, fifteen-year-old Carly has always relied on the constancy—and authenticity—of her sister, Anna. But when fourteen-year-old Anna turns plastic-perfect-pretty over the course of a single summer, everything starts to change. And there are boys involved, complicating things as boys always do. With warmth, insight, and an unparalleled gift for finding humor even in stormy situations, beloved author Lauren Myracle dives into the tumultuous waters of sisterhood and shows that even very different sisters can learn to help each other stay afloat.

Review:
I first have to say that this novel was really cool. It was just a totally fun novel and I loved reading it and had fun while doing so. This is my first Lauren Myracle novel (I think) so I wasn't all so sure of what to expect from her, but it was good. Not amazing, and not bad, but good. Enjoyable. Really, truly, a fun read.

Carly was a cool character. Her personality was different, she was kind of like a teenage, twenty-first century, hippie. Which was cool. I loved that about Carly. Anna was a pretty good character too. She didn't have a varied personality, and it was a pretty typical one at that, but she wasn't a terrible character. Though, I have to say, they were sometimes annoying and Carly was really naive a lot of the time.

I liked the setting of the novel. It was in a very rich neighborhood in Georgia and you can see how the world is in places like that still. Myracle showed how there is segregation out there, and we aren't just living in a web of lies that we are all done with segregation, because it is there, and we do need to realize that.

The writing wasn't anything special. It wasn't awkward, which is definitely a good thing. It got the views across and told the story, but it didn't show so much emotion and intensity to show that she is a fantastic writer, but, nonetheless, a still good writer.

The plot wasn't so original. We've seen this story numerous times: Older sister was looked up too. A summer a part from each other. Sisters come together. Younger sister is a hot thing. Older sister is jealous. But it was still a really cute novel, the peace part, the love part and the duckie part was just absolutely cute.

I'd recommend this for a cute, funny, fast paced, fun read. Great for summer.