Miss Educated: An Upper Class Novel #2

Boarding school novel with depth, drugs, and sex.

Author: Hobson Brown, Taylor Materne, Caroline Says Pages: 288 Publisher: HarperTeen Published Date: 08/27/2007 Genre: Fiction - School PB Price: $8.99 Publisher's Recommended Reading Level: Young adult Read Aloud: YA Read Alone: YA

Common Sense Note

Parents need to know this book deals with the death of a student, students having sex and using drugs, sibling rivalry, and romantic relationships. One student even deals drugs. This book has adult themes and situations that are common to the boarding school/clique series genres.

Families can talk about drug use, dealing with death, friendship, and how the main characters responded to peer pressure. What prevented Chase from being honest about his home situation? What ways can parents and teens communicate in order to have better relationships? They can also talk about sexual activity and how it affects some characters in the book.

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Common Sense Review

Reviewed By: Terreece Clarke

MISS EDUCATED is a well-written novel about several characters navigating their way through life and boarding school on the East Coast.

Parker Cole is a social outcast and marches to her own drummer, Chase Dobbs is a popular kid whose misbehaving and poor grades has him on thin ice both at school and at home. Parker and Chase get thrown together for a school project and develop a close bond. The book takes us through their second semester at Wellington as they both try to figure out where they belong and how they feel about each other.

The characters are well-developed and the dialogue is smart. The authors -- all three of them -- do a great job adding vulnerability to the characters. Unlike other books in this genre, Miss Educated does more than regurgitate stereotypes.

Teens will love the Wellington students' camaraderie and will identify with likeable characters Chase and Parker. Parents will not enjoy the drug use or lavish displays of wealth and alcohol, but will find plenty of opportunities to discuss the consequences of the Wellington students' actions.

From The Book

"God, it's weird," he says, still without glancing at her. "When you left this fall, it seemed like a trial or something. Like we would get you back. Now it feels real. Like you belong to them, to that place."

Parker throws her arm around Blue, squeezes him. They stand in the cold lot. She can't confirm or deny what he's saying, because she knows she belongs, at this point, to both places and so, in a sense, to neither in full. "You're going to make me cry, Blue."

"Don't do that." Then he pushes her away, and she pushes him back, and they laugh.

They get on their dirt bikes. Parker in black-and-white Adidas high-tops with the gold tongue, and a raccoon coat she found in her basement. Blue with no jacket and no hat, just I Ching cards stuck into the spokes of his wheel. They ride, speeding and skittering on the icy shoulder of the highway, occasionally letting out a full-moon howl for the hell of it. Dangerous, and alive.

Plot Summary:

Parker and Chase have their own agendas for their second semester at Wellington. For Parker, her goal is to find a place to fit in, for Chase, it's to somehow manage to get his grades up and stay out of trouble. A crazy and horrible event transforms the lab partners into good friends. Maybe Wellington won't be so bad after all.

Related Books:

Other Books in the Series:
The Upper Class

More Boarding School Books:
The It Girl by Cecily von Ziegesar
Looking for Alaska by John Green
Midnight for Charlie Bone: Children of the Red King, Book 1 by Jenny Nimmo

Reviewed: 01/10/2008

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Content		CS	adults	kids
Content
Sexual Content Chase has sex in a music practice room and almost has sex with a college girl while high on GHB. Talk about masturbation, sexual fantasies, and experiences, plus sexual banter and innuendo.
Violence A student dies and is found by other students -- the way she is found, how she died, and her body are described. A student remembers physical fights he's had with his sibling.
Language Typical teen swearing, plus a few characters are heavy four-letter-word users. An African-American student uses the "N" word.
Message
	Social Behavior The students are privileged and indulgent. They engage in underage drinking, sex, and illegal drug use. They also experience repercussions for their actions and understand that what they do is wrong.
	Commercialism The culture of the boarding school denotes immense wealth and privilege and brand names like Hermes, Dunhill, and OP were used to illustrate.
	Drug/Alcohol/Tobacco It seems the majority of the students at the boarding school drink, smoke, and try illegal drugs, with one student even being a dealer for prescription drugs snagged from the school nurse.