To Be Mona [Hardcover]

Kelly Easton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 25, 2008

Sage Priestly is seventeen, and she longs to reinvent herself -- to strip away the fat, the past, the crazy mom, the unpaid bills. She longs to be her own version of the gorgeous and popular Mona Simms.

Sage starts dieting and exercising. She gets blond highlights and throws away all of her black clothes. Bit by bit she transforms herself. This is deeply troubling to her best friend, Vern, who is secretly in love with Sage just the way she is. But the boyfriend Sage wants -- the popular jock Roger -- suddenly notices her. And when they start dating, Sage thinks her life is turning around.

So why isn't Sage happier? Yes, Roger is a little too controlling and pushy, but isn't that what boys are like when you date them? What is it about the image Sage has created that just doesn't fit?

Smart, honest, and tough, Sage is a teen with more going for her than she thinks, but she still has a lot to learn.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 9 Up—High school misfit Sage Priestly, 17, loses the race for class president to Mona, a golden girl with the looks, brains, and popularity Sage covets. In this "tables are shinier on the other side of the cafeteria" story, Sage wants to be Mona, trying to transform herself by dieting (starving herself) and daydreaming about dating popular-guy Roger (actually a stereotypical jerk jock). Clueless about best friend and boy-next-door Vern's love for her, Sage, in a rare moment of boldness, gets Roger's attention and enters into a relationship with him, ending it only when his emotional abuse turns physical. Meanwhile, she serves as caregiver for her single mom, who fluctuates between mania and depression. Only after Vern's parents intervene is Eve diagnosed with bipolar disorder and given treatment, and both women's lives turn toward healthier directions. Chapters alternate among the teens' points of view—mainly Sage, Vern, and his friend Walter (an intelligent, gay teen struggling with high school culture)—and are filled with easy-to-relate-to insecurity, angst, and desire. Unfortunately, concern for Sage can sometimes be eclipsed by frustration with her; she wonders what Roger sees in her, as readers wonder the reverse. Mona is merely a vessel for Sage's envy. More tell than show, dialogue can be as false-sounding as the second-tier characters. An afterword includes an author's note and resources on bipolar disorder and abuse.—Danielle Serra, Cliffside Park Public Library, NJ
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About the Author

Kelly Easton is the author of Walking on Air and The Life History of a Star, which was a Teen Readers Book Sense Top Ten book and a Golden Kite Award Honor winner. She has published stories in such literary journals as the Connecticut Review, the Paterson Literary Review, Iris, and Frontiers. Kelly Easton lives in Jamestown, Rhode Island.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books (November 25, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416900543
• ISBN-13: 978-1416900542
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,693,902 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Kelly Easton grew up in Los Angeles, California. From the time she can first remember, she was obsessed with the destruction of the beauty of the area, orange groves and strawberry fields and charming downtowns, by the suburban sprawl of the seventies. Her search for the perfect place has sent her all over the place, most recently North Carolina and now New England.

Kelly has an MFA in playwriting from UC San Diego. She teaches in a low residency MFA program in writing for children and young adults at Hamline University, and lives on islands in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. She also teaches creative writing to kids in summer workshops, and helps other writers edit their books. Kelly lives with her husband, Michael Ruben, and their children: Isaac, Isabelle, Mollie and Rebecca (plus their dog Garfield). She has just finished her first adult novel, Dreams in the Land of Photographs. You can reach her through her website: www.kellyeaston.com

Kelly's novels have won many awards, among them, the Asian/Pacific American Literature Award, the ASTAL Middle School Book of the Year Award, NYPL Book For the Teen Age, Kentucky Bluegrass Masterlist (Hiroshima Dreams); an ALA Quick Pick listing, and nomination for the ABE award, 2010 (Aftershock); Atlanta parents Best Book, and NYPL Book for the Teen Age (White Magic); a Boston Author's Club Award, Westcherster's Choice Best Book, CCBC Best Books selection (Walking on Air); and a Golden Kite Honor, Booksense Top Ten (The Life History of a Star). Her newest book, The Outlandish Adventures of Liberty Aimes, is a Jr. Library Guild selection.

She loves to hear from readers!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun and eyeopening look at the effect of a bipolar parent on a teen's life, January 28, 2009

By 

D. "booklover" (Long Island) - See all my reviews

This review is from: To Be Mona (Hardcover)

A wonderful and entertaining story that reads quickly as you follow the insecurities and yearning of a teenage girl and her unhappiness with herself. She fantasizes becoming like the perceived "cool kid" while she struggles with the realities of growing up poor, in a disorgazined family with a bi-polar mother. As a therapist, I can tell you that this is a must read for any teenager living with a parent with serious emotional or alcohol problems. It will give them hope, faith and understanding and help them to live their lives in the face of such sadness and frustrating difficulties. They will feel that they are not alone and better understand their feelings and be inspired to choose a healthier course for their own lives.

2.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, but too much going on in this small book, March 10, 2010

By 

Brittany Moore "Reading Nook" (New Hampshire) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: To Be Mona (Hardcover)

Sage wants to be Mona, she has it all - the looks, the friends, the money. Sage's mom has pretty much been crazy since her dad left them many years ago. Her next door neighbors the Goldburg's have been looking out for her and her mom for about that long. Sage wants the jock, Roger, to be the one who loves her even when Vern Goldburg so openly does. She just wants a better life, with more money and more hope. Told in alternating viewpoints between Sage, Roger, Vern and Vern's friend, Walter this story tells the tale of trying to fit in when maybe being on the outside isn't that bad.

This story was alright. I enjoyed the random hypothetical questions that are interspersed throughout the novel. I think that was the highlight however. The characters were vague and forgettable. It seemed in the beginning of this novel that Mona was this popular snotty girl that Sage envied and wanted to replace. Really Mona seemed like just an ordinary girl, like all the other girls in the school except Sage. Sage was really only different because her mom was wacky and they didn't really have any money. Sage seemed very full of herself. She starts dating Roger and it's evident that he is a real jerk, he's controlling and possessive and never really nice to Sage. He is also really stupid. I'm not sure why their relationship lasted so long because he didn't really have any redeeming qualities. I feel like Sage just wanted him so badly that even when it turned out he wasn't a catch she just kept dating him to prove that she wasn't wrong about him. The other relationships in this story also seem odd and out of place. Maybe people act like this, but I don't feel that they were authentic. This book touched on a few good points about mental illness and domestic abuse, but all in all, this book was a dud. It was a fast read but not a really good one.

First Line:
"Consider yourself a color."

Favorite Line:
"Consuming a diet of Pop-tarts, Twizzlers, and Neco Wafers can alter your sexual orientation and give you bad dreams."

4.0 out of 5 stars Very likeable protagonist, July 1, 2009

By 

John Mcconnell (Helen, GA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: To Be Mona (Hardcover)

Eastman, Kelly. To be Mona. New York: Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2008. 218 pp. Grades 9 and up.

Mona is the most perfect girl in school. Her hair is perfect, her face is perfect, her acceptance speech as class president is perfect. And Sage wants to be just like her.

Sage is the daughter of the town crazy woman, who drove away Sage's real father when she was only four years old. They live in near-poverty, and Sage desperately wants to keep her family secrets secret. Her lifeline is her next-door neighbor and best friend Vern Goldberg, and his supportive family, who have often wanted to move away but have stayed in order to provide Sage with some approximation of a normal family life. Sage is happy enough with her lot until Roger, school jock, hunk and eventually controlling jerk, comes into her life, and she decides that he is what she really wants.

Sage reinvents herself. She has her hair highlighted and she changes her makeup and loses weight. She turns her back on Vern and many of the things that are important to her.

This is the story of a young girl seeking to find her true self, and facing her personal demons of her mother's bipolar disorder and her abusive relationship with Roger. Eastman is quick to inject her own opinions about politics and psychology into the story and this can sometimes distract the reader, but for the most part this book is a well-told and poignant tale of an unhappy girl becoming a woman who has the power to change her own life for the better.