How I Created My Perfect Prom Date

by Todd Strasser

Overview

Nicole Maris has it all: looks, popularity, and Brad Selden, the hottest guy in school, at her fingertips. But then Brad decides to take someone else to the prom! Now Nicole's got a project on her hands: find an even better prom date.

Enter Chase Hammond. He's not exactly Mr. Popular, but with a makeover and some help form Nicole, he just might be prom king material.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781416954101
Publisher:	Simon Pulse
Publication date:	02/19/2008
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	4.19(w) x 7.00(h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile:	540L (what's this?)
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Todd Strasser has written many critically acclaimed novels for adults, teenagers, and children, including the award-winning Can’t Get There from Here, Give a Boy a Gun, Boot Camp, If I Grow Up, Famous, and How I Created My Perfect Prom Date, which became the Fox feature film Drive Me Crazy. Todd lives in a suburb of New York and speaks frequently at schools. Visit him at ToddStrasser.com.

Editorial Reviews

Formerly titled Girl Gives Birth to Own Prom Date, this companion novel to How I Changed My Life follows Nicole, who plans to shape Chase into the perfect prom escort after she's jilted by her ideal Brad. Ages 12-up. (June)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Gr 6-10A companion to How I Changed My Life (S & S, 1995), this novel follows students at Time Zone High School preparing for the prom. Nicole, who is not ashamed that she enjoys being "the P word," is certain she will be asked by Brad, who is also popular. Together, the two are certain to be among the enviable "Final Four" in the Grand March. When Brad and Dulcie start going together, Nicole panics. Her solution? She gives her childhood friend, Chase, a make-over, and the two pretend to be a couple, bringing Chase into her clique. Before the prom, though, breakups reshuffle some couples, resulting in some unlikely pairs on the big night. Although this novel delivers its share of laughs, it does not live up to its companion. The narrative style of shifting the perspective between characters every few pages continues, but is less effective here. While the shifts occur at natural breaks in the first novel, they seem more for the sake of imitation in the secondan unnecessary interruption of a scene continued in a later segment. The characters, also, are not as likable as those in the previous book. Compared to the issues Bo and Kyle tackle, Nicole and Chase's problems seem trivial. Readers unfamiliar with How I Changed My Life are likely to enjoy this one more than fans of the first story, who will experience "sequel letdown."Kelly Diller, Humboldt High School, IA

School Library Journal

The prolific Strasser strikes again with a companion novel to his very funny first look at Time Zone High, How I Changed My Life (1995), and this one's even more fresh and irreverently funny than its predecessor. Nicole is a senior at TZH who takes life seriously and plans to find "a cause or disease or something" to devote her life to, but only after basketball star and hunk Brad asks her to the prom. To her surprise and consternation, Brad asks someone else. Drastic times require drastic measures, so Nicole transforms her next-door neighbor and oldest friend, grunge-king Chase, who's handsome but not very clean, into a stud muffin. She succeeds, of course (making true the book's reader-grabbing title), but not without a whole series of the hilarious, well-concocted misadventures. Both Nicole and Chase are corking characters, as are all their friends. Best of all, the high humor doesn't detract at all from Strasser's serious but understated message about nonconformity and self-acceptance; it's there, behind all the goofy plot twists and effervescent dialogue.

Kirkus Reviews