Frozen Rodeo [Library Binding]

Catherine Clark (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 21, 2003

Summer is supposed to be fun.
Right?

Peggy Fleming Farrell's summer has taken a turn for the worse: She works at the Gas'n Git to pay back her parents for wrecking two cars, takes summer school French from a succession of increasingly lame substitute teachers, loves an IHOP waiter, and attends Lamaze class with her mother while her father prepares for his professional ice-skating comeback (read: midlife crisis).

Just when the only exciting event looming before her is the town's annual Rodeo Roundup Days -- "exciting" being a relative term -- things take an unexpected turn for the better. Between hijinks with a hijacked golf cart, plans for streaking at the Rodeo parade, and a showdown over pancakes, Peggy's summer becomes more about mayhem than money management, and definitely something close to fun. Even if she never learns to speak French.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 8 Up-Peggy Fleming Farrell, 17, feels no obligation to live up to her famous namesake-much to the disappointment of her father, a retired professional skater hoping to make a comeback at a local summer rodeo-on-ice. Taking care of siblings Dorothy, Torvill, and Dean; coaching mom at Lamaze class; and working at the coffee bar at Gas 'n Git are enough responsibility for the self-involved teen. From the first paragraph in which Fleming dodges a pursuant Doberman as she Rollerblades to work, the action never pauses. Quirky characters and misadventures are humorous and enjoyable, though they require a stretch of readers' imagination. The realistic teen angst of falling in love with a waiter at IHOP and attending summer school alternates with a far-fetched robbery caper perpetrated by her missing French teacher in a town busy planning a July ice capade with animals. In a page-turning climax, the crime is foiled by the in-line skating heroine who sprays him with a turbo coffee dispenser, then skates off to the hospital to help her mother give birth to baby Elvis. Calamity strikes again as she runs into a car and is rescued by the "Kamikaze" bus driver she delivers coffee to each day. The refreshingly teen voice is dead-on here and stands up to the caricatured adults and happily ever after plot. Readers looking for more tales like Louise Rennison's Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging (HarperCollins, 2000) will find an amusing gem here.
Vicki Reutter, Cazenovia High School, NY
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Gr. 8-12. Peggy Fleming Farel, whose father is a former figure skater, faces a bleak summer before her senior year: a mind-numbing job at the Espress-Oh-Yes coffee counter in a local gas station, French classes from a string of incompetent teachers, revoked car privileges (after she crashed the family car), and seemingly endless family chores including baby-sitting for her three younger siblings. In her free time, P. F. rollerblades to The Lot, a local parking-lot hangout, where she and her friend Charlotte half-heartedly consider a cast of dull boys. The characters, their conversations, and their conflicts are so wholly unexceptional that, like P. F., some teens will tire of this summer of responsibility, boredom, and the occasional prank--until Clark livens things up with a hilarious, albeit completely implausible, conclusion. Other teens, however, may find the lack of drama refreshingly realistic. What's most authentic is P. F.'s voice, which nicely articulates teens' ambivalence toward romance and their fierce yearning to both love and separate from their exasperating families. Gillian Engberg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 13 and up
  
• Library Binding: 304 pages
• Publisher: HarperTeen (January 21, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0066240085
• ISBN-13: 978-0066240084
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,870,134 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stellar Roundup, February 1, 2003

By 

Little Willow (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Frozen Rodeo (Hardcover)

FROZEN RODEO is Catherine Clark's best book to date. Written in first person present tense, it focuses on a teenager named Peggy. Middle name, Fleming. Her father is an amateur figure skater turned real estate agent and her mother is a very pregnant weather forecaster. Due to her father's career, the children all have been named in honor of famous skaters. The five year old twins are named Torvill and Dean. The quiet and thoughtful three year old is called Dorothy. That in itself is sure to crack up any skating fan - but wait, there's more.

Peggy, who opts to go by Fleming, has a very interesting summer. After getting into multiple car accidents - in which she remains unscathed, but sadly cannot say the same for the vehicles - she is no longer allowed to drive and gets a job at the local Gas 'n' Git to pay her father back. Meanwhile, she takes a French class taught by a string of unqualified substitutes, fights her attraction for the cute waiter at IHOP, befriends a girl named Charlotte with a wild streak and bickers with her co-worker, Denny, who has an obsession with U2 and often attempts to look, sound and act like his idol, Bono.

Anyone who has ever lived in a small town and dreamed of getting out of it will echo Fleming's thoughts about her city; anyone who has felt pressured to take care of their younger siblings will sympathize with her family plight. This book is all I have been talking about for days, and I will continue to yak about it until the cows come home. With a solid ending that ties every subplot and character together, I give FROZEN RODEO a perfect score.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars frozen rodeo, November 9, 2003

By 

Cris44 (by a lovely pine tree) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Frozen Rodeo (Hardcover)

Peggy (AKA Fleming) expects the summer before her senior year in high school to be horrible. After crashing the family car twice, her parents force her to get a job as a coffee server at a local gas station, Git and Go, to repay them. In her spare time, she is taking summer school french, to grwduate early and get out of her hometown, Lindville (which is basically a gignatic beef processing center). She also is supposed to help her mother prepare for the birth of another child and babysit for the others. The only part of her summer she looks forward to is wooing her longtime crush, Steve Gopher, while he works at IHOP. However, this hope is quickly dashed when he a Jacqui ( a "ditzy" blonde) become a couple, and Peggy is left out. However, she forges new friendships, Denny (an obsessive U2 fan), Mike ( Steve's best friend who becomes her romantic interest throughout the summer) and Charlotte ( a girl with a definate "wild streak", as the book puts it). Whether it is Denny and Peggy stopping a robbery, making-out with Mike in a carwash or streaking through the lindville rodeo parade with Charlotte, Peggy has these and countless other comical adventures during the summer that prove that things don't always go as planned, but will turn out for the best.
Though this book may seem like a typical young adult book, it offers much more. The adventures are unique and crazy ( No car, so steal a golf cart), and the characters are brilliantly well-developed. Extrodinarily comical moments make this fast-paced read a must read for anyone.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Frozen Fun, March 10, 2003

By 

Andrea K. Dunning (Troy, MI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Frozen Rodeo (Hardcover)

When Catherine Clark introduces the reader to Peggy Fleming Farrell, it's completely evident that we have a new type of young heroine on our hands. Peggy is responsible, observant, and wryly humorous-- think Ramona Quimby; and then pad her ribs with typically embarrassing high school experiences: dumb counter jobs, annoying co-workers and bosses; the excitement and confusion of love; and, of course, the search for one's identity.

Peggy's voice comes from that tender space between youth and adulthood; and her observations and musings often reflect this complexity accurately. For example, Peggy clearly loves her family-- she speaks in detail about her admiration for her father's athletic ability, or her sister Dorothy's patience-- yet the reader simultaneously develops the sense that Peggy is slightly embarrassed to be her mother's birth coach, or that her parents decided to name all the children after figure skating champions. While the reader is willing to accept that Peggy is of atypical intelligence and maturity, she does, at times, appear too smart-- even for an above-average 16-year-old girl. For example, when Peggy finds out the boy she likes only intended for her to be his makeout partner instead of his girlfriend, she goes to his place of employment to confront him about it. This is a point in Peggy's narration where Clark pushes the writing and does not let Peggy do what seems most natural; the reader senses that Clark directs the scene rather than reports it, if only to maintain Peggy's girl-you'll-be-a-woman-soon balance.

Nonetheless, Frozen Rodeo is an entertaining seasonal read. It's not overly sensational-- it stays real through Peggy's voice-- which is warmly human and very funny.