Customer Reviews

The Kayla Chronicles

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Kayla has charm, but Winston's book suffers from a weirdly didactic attack on feminism. Kayla herself manages to find a happy medium between a vapid version of feminism that claims anything a girl wants to do is empowering and an angry variant that attacks everything male, but Winston could use a little more balance herself. Her insistence that women who are skeptical of sexually dressed teenagers or women who promote intellectual rigor are all bitter feminist drabs seems to miss the point. (Feminism is supposed to offer women options, not insist that only women who wear cute shoes are strong individuals).

Poor Rosalie (Kayla's best friend), who dares to question the status quo and suspects that dance team members may be selected for their appearance as much as their talent is belittled and attacked mercilessly. The fact that women in high-profile performance jobs are required to meet rigid and artificial standards of appearance seems not be be part of Winston's world. I enjoyed Kayla's own growth in this novel, but was appalled by Winston's attacks on women (and girls) who challenged the status quo.

I also wished that the book was a smidge less matierialistic. What message does it send young readers when Kayla's father offers her $500 dollars to try out for the dance team? In my world, 14 year olds don't get $500 for anything less than a summer of work--certainly not for following their own dreams and auditioning for a competitive dance squad.

Aspiring journalist Kayla Dean and her best friend, Rosalie, are committed to feminism and fighting the injustices of society. Rosalie's latest plan is one that will push Kayla out of her comfort zone: Kayla will try out for their school dance team in order to prove their hypothesis that the Lady Lions only take girls with "big, luscious breasts," and Kayla will write an expose for the school paper.

But Kayla, a great dancer who has never quite gotten her confidence level to the point where she's comfortable performing, is in for a shock when, despite wearing an A-cup, she makes the team. Even more surprising is her realization that she likes being a Lady Lion and enjoys getting dressed up and wearing cute outfits. Now she has to find a way to reconcile her long-held beliefs with her newfound hobby--and to do so without losing her best friend.

I liked this book because it takes a fairly ordinary high school situation and makes it interesting with a distinct, funny style that reflects the main character's personality. Kayla tends to think in headlines, like "Kayla Dean Infiltrates Dance Team. Senate Probes Plight of Itty-Bitties. A-cups Get Their Due!" She also invents so many of her own words and phrases that there's a "Lexicon of Kayla-isms" at the end of the book. Kayla-isms include "blind-sexy: when someone looks so good even a blind person would go, `Mmm!'" and "dis-bliss: the point at which bliss gets run over by the dump truck of disgrace."

Kayla is a funny, memorable character, and the book's theme--the ability to retain one's femininity while still fighting for women's rights--is one that will resonate with readers.

Reviewed by: Katie Hayes

Kayla Dean wants to be a journalist. She considers herself a rampant and knowledgeable feminist who calls her dad the "Great Oppressor" for his less-than-modern ideas about a woman's place in the world and his feelings about his outspoken oldest daughter. Her youngest sister, the little beauty queen, seems to be his favorite, and Kayla often sees herself as a fourth wheel in their little family. In fact, at a family event, photos are taken of the perfect sister, her mom and her dad together --- but no one notices that Kayla is not in the picture.

Not in the picture, figuratively speaking, is how Kayla feels until she begins a campaign to find the rampant sexism in a school tradition. Having created a group called SPEAK ("Sisters Providing Encouragement and Kindness"), she watches as her investigative report into the local dance team's aversion to girls with small breasts becomes a big deal campaign --- one that challenges her every feminist viewpoint, along with her friendships and other relationships as well.

Wanting to be a strong female, quoting from the recorded words of many a famous woman of strength and character, Kayla is a teen you can really cheer for --- but she also has her girliness intact, particularly when it comes to cute shoes. It's a specific although hackneyed perspective to take on a young woman who stands out from the crowd the most, just when she has the opportunity to belong to said crowd right in front of her. The main thrust of THE KAYLA CHRONICLES is that sometimes the things we most think we couldn't live with become the things that most change our very existence and challenge all of our previous thoughts about how the world works.

Kayla often calls upon the prodigious and meaningful memories of her maternal grandmother, the one with the fierce intellect and brave, bold heart. It is wonderful to read in a young adult novel aimed towards girls about a respect for the women who have come before and how their accomplishments helped pave the way for the life they are able to live now. Since Kayla is African American, these memories take on an even more poignant bent as she deals with the unspoken taint of racism in the world around her. She manages to embrace all the sides of herself as a young woman and give others the same benefit of the doubt, all the while proving to herself and to her unbelieving father that the strength inside her suits her to a tee. Such journeys of personal discovery, peppered with a healthy dose of women's history, make THE KAYLA CHRONICLES a special and fascinating book.

The author really goes for broke here. Sex, religion, racism, the whole of female black history, the importance of intelligence, the desire to be useful to the world and living within a well-intentioned state of seriously enacted morals all have an important part to play in the many dialogues that the story encircles. I highly recommend this book to young girls everywhere, regardless of race, creed or color. Kayla's struggle to be true to herself and the women of the past to whom she feels she owes so much is a significant, heartrending story.

Congratulations to Sherri Winston for proving that "chick lit" can be fun, intellectually satisfying and emotionally relevant, all at the same time. I loved THE KAYLA CHRONICLES and am passing it on immediately to my 13-year-old niece. I'll get another copy for my six-year-old daughter, who I'm sure will find it instructive and insightful in seven years.

--- Reviewed by Jana Siciliano

This one is really fun! Kayla sees herself as an investigative reporter out to bust her school's dance team, the Lady Lions, as a bunch of busty, brainless bimbos...but hold the presses...when she makes the team, she discovers a love of dance, a newfound confidence and scariest of all...the ability to think for herself and not live by maxims and stereotypes. Winston takes us on a great ride in the voice of Kayla, which is always funny, always clever and always makes us think a little. A must for girls who want to break out of the mold and be themselves.