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A child prodigy does not necessarily grow up to be a genius adult. Imagine being studied, challenged, and revered as a child only to slowly grow up as a smart, but not genius level, quirky adult. In John Green's An Abundance of Katherines, Colin Singleton is all too painfully aware that his best years might be long behind him.
Colin was a child prodigy. Now he is just a quirky young adult who remembers inane facts and has a thing for girls named Katherine. In fact, he has had 19 girlfriends named Katherine, all with their own stories and all with their own reasons for dumping Colin. When K19 dumps Colin, he can't bring himself to just go on with life as usual. His wise-cracking Lebanese friend Hassan has a wonderful solution: a road trip!
The two boys climb into the car and head off into the sunset with no real destination in mind as long as it is not home. When they end up in Gutshot, Tennessee, they realize the small town has more to offer than just the body of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. With a motley crew of people centered around a tampon string factory and the impetus for WWI, Hassan and Colin find jobs, first kisses, another Colin, and a theorem that can predict the longevity of relationships and reveals Colin's life as a Dumpee.
Have you ever watched a movie where not much happened, but the witty dialogue kept you giggling and hanging on until the end? That is the gist of An Abundance of Katherines. The quirky relationship between Colin and Hassan will have you laughing from start to finish. I can honestly say there isn't much action to this story, but that won't stop you from enjoying the story. Colin's obsession with Katherines and intrigue with Lindsay leads him to develop a mathematical equation that explains the life of a relationship. For a washed up prodigy, his success with the equation is reliant upon his need to feel useful and intelligent again. Both boys are such unique characters, you will wish you knew them in person!
This book has some mild intimate content and a decent amount of choice language, but that isn't the reason I would save this book for an older student. The dialogue is so quirky and fast it would most likely be lost on a younger student. It requires a unique sense of humor and appreciation for sarcasm and wit to enjoy this book. If you enjoy those things, you will undoubtedly love this book. If you are looking for a linear story with a beginning, a middle, and a conclusion, this book might not be your cup of tea. The other cool feature of this book is the footnotes. They add to the story in unique ways, giving snarky remarks regarding the story, confirming or denying tidbits of information, and developing the characters further. So don't overlook the footnotes, and if you need a witty book to make you laugh, Katherines is waiting for you!
Math? Fun? You have got to be kidding, right? Well, for Farrah Higgens, in A Girl Named Digit, by Annabelle Monaghan, math is more than just something she is good at. It is almost a compulsion. So much so that her nickname is Digit. But math gets Digit more than she bargained for when she cracks a terrorist code embedded in a teen romance television program.
Digit is the girl Farrah has worked very hard to hide. Her parents even made the school promise to seal her SAT and placement scores in order to protect her from unwanted attention about her scores (which got her into MIT for the fall semester). Farrah works very hard to hide Digit, but when she notices a series of numbers flashing briefly on the screen of a silly teen drama one night, she can't help but notice them. Over the next couple of episodes, Digit realizes there is more to the numbers and cracks a code that leads her to the discovery of an event at JFK. Unfortunately, she doesn't know what the code means until she sees the news where a plane was destroyed and people were killed by a suicide bomber at JFK. Terrified, Digit and her faithful father go to the FBI to report her findings, at which point they are essentially laughed out of the office. But Digit doesn't give up.
She goes to the show's studio to get more information about the code, but she is immediately followed. Being the smart girl she is, she manages to get herself arrested and her attacker recorded by security cameras in order to be taken to the FBI safely. Finally, with the face of her attacker, the FBI realizes her code breaking is legitimate and that Digit is now being hunted by the same eco-terrorists who blew up the luxury jet at JFK. In order to protect Digit, the FBI lets the media think she is kidnapped and puts her in hiding with a particularly young and handsome FBI prodigy named John. When John and Digit crack another code, they can't help but track it down, but it means they will be running for their lives. But when you can't help but crack the codes, what can you do when they are right in front of you?
This was a really cute story for anyone who likes any books from Ally Carter (Gallagher Girls, Heist Society) or the like. It is a cute, girly middle reader adventure that sucks you in and keeps you reading. Digit is an interesting character because she is absolutely brilliant and still embarrassed by it. We all know what it is like for kids to stand out for being smart and have seen kids "hide" their smarts, so this story would be a great way to bring that out into the open. Why are they ashamed of being smart? Why would anyone hide the fact that they were a mathematical genius? I think you could find some really interesting conversations popping up within this realm. And the coolest thing is that Digit ends up foiling a terrorist plot with her smarts! Not to mention, I love the idea that John finds her intelligence one of her best features. Gotta love a boy who likes a girl for her brains!
I would say this is an excellent book for the pre-teen to teenage "girly girls" who like to read about boys and romance, but it still has a smart, strong young woman as the lead character. It is a fun, fast read so a struggling reader would be able to finish it fairly quickly and have success with the accessible reading level. The terrorist plot is particularly relevant for the world we live in today, making this story more than just your average "boy meets girl" story. All I can say is I hope we see more of Digit!
