Customer Reviews

The Big Picture: A Katie Parker Production, Act 3

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Katie Parker's past closes in on her in The Big Picture, Jenny B. Jones' final volume of A Katie Parker Production. Katie's mom gets out of rehab and wants Katie back. The Scotts drive Katie out to Middleton, Texas, to her mother's mobile home and her new life--or old life, depending on how things go. Katie leaves the Scotts, her best friend, Francis, and her boyfriend, Charlie, and sets forth on a new journey, hoping her mom is ready to make their family work.

From the start tensions are high between Katie and her mom. Katie often finds herself home alone when her mom disappears for days at a time, even missing the social worker's visit. Katie wants her mom to make this work, but she isn't making it a priority. Nor is Charlie making their long-distance friendship a priority, despite his claims to care about her. Katie finds in instant friend in Tate Matthews, who goes out of his way to make Katie feel at home in Middleton. When the situation with her mom escalates and becomes dangerous, Katie is forced to make some hard decisions that will affect her future forever.

This book is a wonderful end to the trilogy. I was concerned about Katie not being with her In Between friends for most of the book, but Tate Matthews was a wonderful surprise. I thoroughly enjoyed his character. My only disappointment was the absence of letters from Katie to Mrs. Smartly, which were my favorite parts of the previous two books. Still, a satisfying read until the last line, The Big Picture shows that happily ever after isn't always perfect, but a girl can get through it with the GOG (grace of God). Highly recommended.

If you haven't read them, you must read books one and two:
In Between: A Katie Parker Production Act 1 and On the Loose: A Katie Parker Production, Act 2

Katie Parker is a riot! A realistic, relatable, sarcastic, hilarious girl on the verge of adulthood and all the issues that come with. The best part about Katie is EVERYONE gets her - young teens, college students, moms, middle-aged women, even grannies can relate to something in Katie's life. In fact, one of my favorite characters was Mad Maxine, Katie's crazy foster grandma who gets into more trouble than Katie herself.

I would recommend this series (please, go back and read them in order!) to any teen girl. They're fresh, fun, and full of inspiring themes that don't preach, but rather give subtle undertones of faith. Katie is real - it was hard to put this last book in the series down. I want to save them and let my daughter read them one day. (Okay, so she'll have to wait about 12 years, but hey!) =)

The Big Picture is the third book in the Katie Parker series. I fell in love with Katie Parker on the first page of book one. Book two was even better. Now, The Big Picture is my favorite of all three. You'll laugh and cry, sometimes both at the same time. Filled with characters that will steal your heart, you'll hate to tell them goodbye on the last page.
Katie Parker's struggles touched me deeply and filled with me a sense of hope and purpose. Try this series, you will not be disappointed.

I was lucky enough to be present at the ACFW conference last year when Jenny B. Jones won several awards. All were well deserved. Her writing style is light and fun and when Jenny B. tackles some tough situations, she does so with humor and love. Her characterization is so right on I feel like I'm inside the head of a teenage girl. Thanks Jenny B. for taking me back to high school and fun filled days. If you like a light read that might just make you laugh out loud, you'll love Jenny B.'s books.

I read the first book in the series because it was free and I thought would be a quick read (which it was). The 3rd book was just as enjoyable as the other two!!! All three are about Katie Parker, a high schooler is foster care, who is struggling to find out who she is and what she wants to become. She discovers that she doesn't have to do it alone which she is used to doing. She has her new family, friends, and a new found relationship with God to help her. This is a great story about the ups and downs of Katie's new life. Overall loved this book and the other two!!!

Okay I simply loved this book. It was an easy read and SO funny. I read some parts in school and I was literally laughing out loud in some classes. Jones also know how to add some drama in the story and still manages to write about God but I just gotta say this book is amazing.

The third book in the Katie Parker Production series brings us back to the small, quaint town of In Between. It would also be a quiet town if not for the adventures that Katie brings to it. From trying to save the local drive-in to dealing with the ex-girlfriend who seems to be trying to win back the guy Katie currently likes to finishing up her junior year, Katie's seems to be all ready for another summer in In Between. Unfortunately, her mother comes to take her away from her foster parents and the life she's grown to love. However instead of giving Katie the life she needs, her mother returns to a life of drug addiction and neglect. I was appalled and disgusted with Katie's mother. I do not understand why she wanted Katie back in her life and then treated her the way she did. I can only guess that it's a sense of controlling and in want of a possession. I felt so sorry for the way Katie had to live those few months. I literally was getting so angry at her mother that I wanted to scream at the book. Katie handled these situations WAY better than I would have. It's incredibly sad when a 16 year old has to become the adult in the parent/child relationship.

It's really funny how time changes the way you perceive people. In the first book, I really disliked Maxine. This probably also had to do with the fact that Katie disliked her as well. Then she started to grow on me to the point, in this book, that I looked forward to seeing her pop up with whatever crazy scheme she had concocted. I think it's great that even grandmothers enjoy excitement and not letting their age get the better of them. It's also really funny seeing her next to her straight laced daughter. I was glad to see all of Katie's old friends from In Between as well as the new ones she met when staying with her mother. The ending was rather a surprise but I enjoyed it.

I'm incredibly sad this series is older as I enjoyed Katie's adventures (as well as Maxine's zany antics). This is a really good series for teen girls and it's great for combining serious subject matter with a funny twist. It's one of the most realistic and fun YA books that's out there. The book is rather long at 375 pages, but it reads really fast because you can't put it down. Jenny B. Jones is one of my favorite YA writers and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of her books! HIGHLY recommended.

I read all three Katie Parker books back to back, and was sorry to see the series end. There is a lot of potential for a fourth book, and I hope someday that will happen. Jones does a great job of showing the complicated relationship Katie has with her mother, the heartbreak of being taken from her foster parents (who she has grown to love) and the roller coaster relationship she has with Charlie. Thoroughly entertaining fiction for both young and old; highly recommended for all high schoolers (and beyond).

Fresh and honest are the two words that came to mind as I read Jenny B. Jones latest installment of the Katie Parker series (The Big Picture, A Katie Parker Production Act Three). Katie lives in In Between, Texas with her darling foster parents and endearingly crazy foster granny. When her mother is released from prison, she wants to start a new life with her daughter in a new town, and Katie is forced to walk away from a town she loves and a family who dotes on her. She also leaves behind a fabulous church, friends, and a boyfriend who suddenly can't take his eyes off his ex. Even though life with her mom in the trailer park goes downhill very quickly, Katie falls in with a nice group of kids from a quaint church, including the pastor's son, who's dreamy enough to make her and the reader forget about that guy back in In Between.

What most impressed me about Katie Parker (and Jenny B. Jones) is the true portrayal of what it is to be a Christian teenager these days. Katie listens to Fallout Boy and Chris Tomlin. She loves Diet Dr. Pepper and the Lord. She talks as honestly about her relationship with Jesus as she does her swimsuit riding up. What a beautiful example she is to teenagers of today.

Jones talks about some very serious subjects and confronts them with honesty, but also humor. Don't read this book in a crowd, unless you're okay with people turning and giving you weird looks during all the laugh out loud moments.

The worst part of reading The Big Picture was finishing the book and leaving behind characters I loved. Katie, Maxine, Tate, and many of the others will stay with me for a long time.

Katie Parker returns in this third book in the Katie Parker Production Series. Jenny B. Jones has once again written an entertaining story of youth, trials, faith, and forgiveness. Sometime when you get to the third book in a series, the story has weakened and the characters lost some charm. This is not the case with The Big Picture. You will welcome the opportunity to become involved in Katie Parker's life again.

She settles into life in her foster home, and then her mother gets out of rehab and reclaims custody. Katie must move back to her mother's home and start again. She leaves her best friend and her boyfriend, who appears to be more focused on his ex than her. As she starts over in the new location her newfound faith struggles to understand God's plan. Katie makes friends with another young man who never questions her background, but always manages to be by her side when she needs help.

When the situation with her mother changes for the worse and becomes dangerous, Katie's life seems condemned much like the local drive-in, The Big Picture. As she and her friends, both new and old, work to save the local landmark, Katie faces destruction in her world. Her mother returns to the old criminal ways. Can one lonely teenage girl find a happy ever after in a life is tough world?

The Big Picture is an excellent book which I highly recommend. The final book in the Katie Parker series leaves you hoping maybe someday to return to the small town of In Between. Jenny B. Jones has a creative way of writing from the point of view of a teenage girl trying to find her way in a lost world. You will laugh, cry, and sigh with contentment as you read this book. I also recommend the first two books in the series, In Between and On the Loose.