{"id":38815,"date":"2021-02-28T21:50:42","date_gmt":"2021-03-01T01:50:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=38815"},"modified":"2021-02-28T21:50:42","modified_gmt":"2021-03-01T01:50:42","slug":"review-of-you-should-see-me-in-a-crown-by-leah-johnson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=38815","title":{"rendered":"Review of You Should See Me in a Crown, by Leah Johnson"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>You Should See Me in a Crown<\/em><\/p>\n

by Leah Johnson
\nread by Alaska Jackson<\/p>\n

Scholastic Press, 2020. 7 hours, 18 minutes.
\nReview written January 9, 2021, from a library eaudiobook
\n2020 Cybils Finalist<\/a>: Young Adult Fiction
\nStarred Review
\n2021 Stonewall Honor Books<\/p>\n

Okay, I\u2019ll confess: My Cybils panel chose this book as a finalist in Young Adult Fiction, and I hadn\u2019t read it yet. I knew that a lot of people liked it, but I took a gamble that other books would rise above it \u2013 and this time, I lost out. So I felt obligated to see what my group was recommending, and I wasn\u2019t sorry.<\/p>\n

I do have a hard time with the premise of the book: That there\u2019s a town in Indiana where Prom is everything<\/em>. There\u2019s a six week campaign period for prom queen and king. Candidates are expected to do volunteer activities, have good grades, and appear in promotional events, with many of these weighted into who gets to be on the court. In fact, the winning prom queen and king get a $10,000 scholarship.<\/p>\n

Really? To me, it seemed completely unbelievable and just invented as the set up for a book about an unlikely prom queen. And how trite is that? <\/p>\n

But I reflected that I know nothing about how serious prom might be in a rural county of Indiana. In fact, I don\u2019t know much about prom, having gone to a small Christian high school decades ago. Now they did further destroy believability by mentioning the year \u2013 No, you didn\u2019t go to prom in 2020 \u2013 but that was a mistake a few other young adult novels made this year. Who knew when the book was being published that it couldn\u2019t actually happen in 2020?<\/p>\n

However, after my colleagues chose the book as our finalist, I was willing to set aside my skepticism. Before long, I found myself making excuses to listen to more of the audiobook, which was good for getting puzzles done!<\/p>\n

The story begins as Liz Lighty learns she did not get the scholarship she\u2019d auditioned for to go to the college her mother attended \u2013 the one she\u2019s wanted to go to all her life, but especially ever since her mother died of sickle cell disease. Her brother and some friends decide she should run for prom queen \u2013 and the $10,000 scholarship. Liz doesn\u2019t even want to tell her grandparents she didn\u2019t get the scholarship, because she\u2019s afraid they\u2019ll sell their house to support her.<\/p>\n

Trouble is, Liz\u2019s friend has a way to track her school\u2019s social media app, and Liz is currently next-to-last out of 25 candidates for prom court. On top of that, she\u2019s got social anxiety, she\u2019s black, and she\u2019s queer. She\u2019s not a \u201clegacy\u201d candidate with parents who were on the prom court when they were in high school.<\/p>\n

But the story gets much more interesting in the people Liz interacts with along the way. There\u2019s a new girl who doesn\u2019t seem to care about other people\u2019s expectations. She\u2019s also beautiful. Then there\u2019s the guy who was her best friend in middle school but rejected her on the first day of ninth grade. He\u2019s running for prom king and Liz starts remembering what it was like having him for a friend.<\/p>\n

This ends up being a timely novel about friendship and expectations and even romance. You get to caring about Liz and her family and root her on in her quest to make it to Pennington College by way of prom queen.<\/p>\n

ireadya.com<\/a>
\nscholastic.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Find this review on Sonderbooks<\/a> at: www.sonderbooks.com\/Teens\/you_should_see_me_in_a_crown.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n

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