Absolutely Maybe

by Lisa Yee

Overview

Lisa Yee makes her YA debut with this hilarious novel about a charm-school dropout who becomes a drop-dead charmer on a quest for her father in California.

Meet Maybelline Mary Katherine Mary Ann Chestnut, named for two Miss Americas and her mother Chessy's favorite brand of mascara. Chessy teaches the students in her charm school her Seven Select Rules for Young Ladies, but she won't tell Maybe who her real father is -- or protect her from her latest scuzzball boyfriend. So Maybe hitches a ride to California with her friends Hollywood and Thammasat Tantipinichwong Schneider (aka Ted) -- and what she finds there is funny, sad, true, and inspiring . . . vintage Lisa Yee.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780545229807
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	01/01/2010
Sold by:	Scholastic, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
File size:	529 KB
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Lisa Yee's novels include Millicent Min, Girl Genius; Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time (an ALA Notable Book); the Bobby chapter book series, and most recently, Warp Speed. She is also the author of the American Girl books Good Luck, Ivy!, Aloha, Kanani and Good Job, Kanani. Please visit her website at www.lisayee.com.

Editorial Reviews

Moving from middle grade into YA fiction, Yee (Millicent Min, Girl Genius) brings both a flair for comic timing and a sense of pathos. Maybe (short for Maybelline, her mother's favorite mascara) dyes her hair with Kool-Aid, hides her figure under baggy T-shirts and wears ratty sneakers-all acts of rebellion against her alcoholic, pageant-queen mom, proprietor of a charm school in Kissimee, Fla.. After her serial bride mother's latest fiancé attempts to rape her (and tells her credulous mother that Maybe came on to him), Maybe runs away to Los Angeles in search of the father she's never met, armed with only his first name, plus her two best friends: supportive Ted and Hollywood, who is going to study filmmaking at USC. Although things fall into place rather neatly (Ted lands a job with a benevolent Gloria Swanson type; Hollywood wins a prize for a documentary about Maybe, and after one or two bumps, Maybe finds a luxurious home with a former stepfather), the characters are complex and their friendships layered-they sweep readers up in their path. Ages 12-up. (Feb.)

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Publishers Weekly

In an unusual inciting incident for what is essentially a feel-good comedy, Yee's cleverly conceived and executed new tale begins to rock when Maybe's stepfather-to-be tries to rape her. Furious because her oft-married mother doesn't believe her story, the almost-17-year-old takes off for California to find her biological father, a man she knows nothing about. Traveling with Maybe is her best friend, Ted, an adopted Asian boy who is small of stature but huge in terms of personality, and Hollywood, a talented, budding filmmaker. In California, the teens follow separate trajectories, each struggling to find his or her place in the world. Although the novel makes (sometimes great) leaps in terms of credibility, Yee plays to her strengths, wittily delineating the quirky, eccentric humanity of her heartfelt characters as they search for acceptance and love. Tragic, comic and heartwarming by turns, the narrative provides a brightly drawn assemblage of teens and adults readers will root for, right up to an ending that manages to be both Chekhovian in its lack of resolution and satisfyingly schmaltzy. (Fiction. 12 & up)

Kirkus Reviews