It's My Life (Diary of a Teenage Girl: Caitlin, Book 2) [Paperback]

Melody Carlson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 22, 2007

In this emotional sequel to Diary of a Teenage Girl, Caitlin O'Conner faces new trials as she grows in her faith and strives to maintain the recent commitments she's made to God. As a new believer, Caitlin begins her summer job and makes preparations for a Mexico mission trip with her church youth group. Torn between new spiritual directions and loyalty to Beanie, her best friend (now pregnant), Caitlin searches out her personal values on friendship, romance, dating, life goals, and key relationships with God and family. Tough choices threaten her progress, and her year climaxes in her realization that maturity sometimes means life-impacting decisions must be made ... by faith alone.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Gr 7 Up-Caitlin, introduced in Diary of a Teenage Girl (Multnomah, 2000), continues to use her diary as a sounding board. Now 17, she writes, "Can a girl who loves cool clothes and thick, glossy fashion magazines ever learn to accept people for who they really are underneath that veneer? I think, with God, I can." She needs to, since the people in her life turn to her for help with an overwhelming variety of problematic situations. When her psychology class gets to codependency, even Caitlin herself is appalled at the list: "I must admit that over just the last year, I've made myself almost sick with worry about others from time to time-there was my mom and dad and their marriage problems,-Aunt Steph, then Beanie with her pregnancy, Josh just because he's Josh, and for a while I was worried about Andrea, and then Zach with his drug problems, and lately it's been Jenny." Fortunately, just one prayer session with Caitlin is enough to straighten anyone out-including Beanie's abused, alcoholic mother and Jenny with her eating disorder. The diary format is almost too realistic-there is a lot of detail that doesn't move the plot forward, and Caitlin's style is difficult to take in large doses, especially her prayers in screaming capital letters. The teen alternates radically between helpful, caring actions and selfish, childish worries. Some of her decisions (not to date, to become a missionary) are interesting, but complex problems are created and resolved too quickly.

Amy A. Healy, Loyola Academy Resource Center, Wilmette, IL

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Melody Carlson is the bestselling author of more than seventy books for teens, women, and children with total sales over 1 million. She has two grown sons and enjoys an active lifestyle of hiking, skiing, and biking. She lives in the beautiful Oregon Cascade Mountains with her husband and Labrador retriever.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Multnomah Books (May 22, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590529529
• ISBN-13: 978-1590529522
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,910,349 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Melody Carlson has written around 200 books for teens, women and children. That's a lot of books, but mostly she considers herself a "storyteller." Her books range from serious issues like schizophrenia (Finding Alice) to lighter topics like house-flipping (A Mile in My Flip-Flops) but most of the inspiration behind her fiction comes right out of real life. Her young adult novels (Diary of a Teenage Girl, TrueColors etc.) appeal to teenage girls around the world. Her annual Christmas novellas become more popular each year. She's won a number of awards (including the Rita and Gold Medallion) and some of her books have been optioned for film/TV. Carlson has two grown sons and makes her home in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and yellow Lab dog. To find out more about Melody Carlson, visit her website at http://www.melodycarlson.com/

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lived up to the expectitaions that were set for it!, August 4, 2001

By 

N. Curts "lala loof" (middle of nowhere) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: It's My Life (Diary of a Teenage Girl: Caitlin, Book 2) (Paperback)

This is the sequal of the first book in The Diary Series, Diary of a teenage girl. As you very well know, sequals to any origional book (or movie for that matter) have much to live up to. The second in a series must either meet, or exceed, the job done on the book/movie that came before it. I honestly find that this book has gone beyond the expectitations that were set for it.

I feel that *teenage girl*'s main purpose was for the reader to get to know the characters. Without giving away the entire plot, in this book some very intense things begin to unfold. I HIGHLY recomend this book for any young adult reader (not limited to girls), and can almost promise you that you will gain a significant amount of insight into everyday problems that teenagers are forced to deal with.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Faith or Friendship, April 24, 2006

By 

CoolTigersRule (Versailles, OH USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: It's My Life (Diary of a Teenage Girl: Caitlin, Book 2) (Paperback)

This book, It's My Life Diary of a Teenage Girl, is a true test to see if Caitlin can remain loyal to God, while trying to maintain her friendship with Beanie. After making a few new commitments to God, Caitlin realizes that dating is just not something that she wishes to take part in. She sees one of the results from dating every day when she looks at Beanie, and just wonders how in the world is that girl every going to be able to raise a child on her own. Among all this friendship trouble Caitlin is also helping out with the planning of a missionary trip to Mexico. Read this book to find out the shocking truths of a teenage girl.
This is a great choice to read for any teenage girl. This series is one of the best that I've ever read. Once I get started reading I just can't seem to it down for hours. You can take situations from the book and relate them to your own life very easily. Again, this is a great book if you enjoy reading Christian fiction and are a teenage girl.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars My Life, My Decisions, February 10, 2006

By 

Vtown Tigers "Vtown Tigers" (Versailles, Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: It's My Life (Diary of a Teenage Girl: Caitlin, Book 2) (Paperback)

If you like the first book, Diary of a Teenage girl, then you will love It's my life. It will probably answer all your questions all of your questions about the first book. Caitlin is now working at her dad's office. She is raising money for her trip to Mexico. Beanie is not herself because of her pregnancy, and she doesn't want to do any thing with Caitlin. Caitlin is becoming friends with Andrea. One day Beanie was babysitting for Steph's son and he ran in front of a car. Beanie ran after him so he wouldn't get hit, but Beanie got hit instead. When she went to the hospital they found out that she lost her baby. Caitlin felt so sorry for Beanie, she went to visit her every day. That's when Caitlin got the idea that her church should give Beanie a scholarship so she could go to Mexico with their youth group. When they went to Mexico they had a good time until they went to the dump. All the kids there were dirty and hungry. Caitlin felt so sorry for them that when she got back she set up a fund for the dump kids. After school started, Caitlin and Jenny became friends again. That's when Caitlin found out that Jenny has anorexia. What will happen next? You have to read the book you find out.
My favorite part of the book is when they go to Mexico. It was amazing how the explained the kids. The part of the book that I disliked the most was when Caitlin found out that Beanie lost her baby.
I would recommend this book to people that want to get closer to God. It you like books that have real like situations then this book is for you. I hope that you read this amazing book.