What Matters Most (Diary of a Teenage Girl) [Paperback]

Melody Carlson (Author)

Book Description

Series: Diary of a Teenage Girl | Publication Date: September 15, 2009

Maya’s Green Tip for the Day: Recycled fashion is one of the most fun ways to go green. A pair of jeans could be transformed into a denim skirt. A sweater into a vest. A bunch of old ties into a dress. A blanket into a poncho. Accessorize it in new way–with beads, buttons, appliqués, buckles, stencils, or ribbons…your imagination is only the limit. (65 words)

Sixteen-year-old Maya Stark has a lot to sort through. She could graduate from high school early if she wants to. She’s considering it, especially when popular cheerleader Vanessa Hartman decides to make her life miserable–and Maya’s ex-boyfriend Dominic gets the wrong idea about everything.

To complicate matters even more, Maya’s mother will be released from prison soon, and she’ll want Maya to live with her again. That’s a disaster waiting to happen. And when Maya plays her dad’s old acoustic guitar in front of an audience, she discovers talents and opportunities she never expected. Faced with new options, Maya must choose between a “normal” life and a glamorous one. Ultimately, she has to figure out what matters most.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Maya is a fun character! It's not even possible to read It's a Green Thing and not relate to her questions, her challenges, and her struggles as a teen and Christian. And I found myself jotting down her awesome eco-friendly tips!”
Jenny B. Jones, Award winning author of In Between and The Charmed Life series

“As Maya Stark pours her heart out in her journal, readers are treated to an inside view of a life that is at times exotic and unfamiliar, and at other times hauntingly similar to our own. Maya’s struggles become our struggles, her pain our pain, and her successes, therefore, even sweeter. A Not-So-Simple Life is another triumph for Melody Carlson.”
Virginia Smith, author of Sincerely, Mayla and Stuck in the Middle

“Fantastic book! Maya is so easy to like–this is a hard story to put down!”
Erynn Mangum, author of Miss Match

“Melody Carlson has proven her skill once again at writing gritty stories about characters in difficult situations. In A Not-so-Simple Life, Maya Stark seeks to escape life under the controlling hand of her drug-addict mother by acting on a plan for independence with admirable determination.”
Michelle Buckman, author of Maggie Come Lately and My Beautiful Disaster

“I just finished Melody’s book and loved it! The journal format makes the story, and Maya, so real and believable. Readers will easily be able to identify with the realistic approach to a prevalent situation.”
Patricia Rushford, author of the Max & Me Mysteries

About the Author

Melody Carlson is an award-winning, best-selling author of nearly two hundred books for teens, children, and adults, including the Diary of a Teenage Girl series, the Secret Life of Samantha McGregor series, the True Color Series, and Notes from a Spinning Planet series. Melody has two grown sons and lives in central Oregon with her husband, where they enjoy skiing, hiking, gardening, camping, and biking.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Multnomah Books (September 15, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1601421192
• ISBN-13: 978-1601421197
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.7 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #957,941 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

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars What happened?, September 16, 2009

By 

Diane E. Danahy - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: What Matters Most (Diary of a Teenage Girl) (Paperback)

Okay, for starters let me say that I have read all of the previous DOATG books and adored them. I was so excited when Melody Carlson decided to continue the series with Maya... and even though, throughout Maya's first two diaries, there were quite a few contradictions from Kim's books, I still enjoyed them. But how can Melody Carlson end the series with this book? Warning: the following contains spoilers.
First of all: there were way too many blatant contradictions. Mike and Jill own the Paradiso again- but in Kim's last book, Than Was Then..., Redemption owned it. Secondly, there are far too many unfinished plot lines. What was the whole point of the issues with Wyatt and Vanessa? It never goes anywhere. Ditto for Siobhan... and by the way, that was one plotline that really interested me. I felt like it had a ton of potential... but it fell flat with merely a few mentions here and there- literally. And Chloe and Jeremy (it was implied in previous books) would end up together, but they apparently broke up (although it's also hinted that they are getting back together, which was a total relief.) And why on earth would Laura quit the band for college when in Face the Music (Chloe book 4) she said something along the lines of "I wouldn't care if I just had to drop [my college classes] if it meant we could hit the road again." And why isn't Willy Redemption's manager? Very few things are explained. This book just created many questions that, apparently, are never going to be answered, seeing as it's the final DOATG book.
I loved the Samantha McGregor books, Carter House Girls, TrueColors... and all of the other DOATG books. Melody Carlson is by far my favorite author (even after this book). I don't understand what happened with What Matters Most- it felt like she threw a fantastic, powerful series under the bus. I mean, I liked certian elements like the relationship between Dominic and Maya, but basically, I wanted to cry when I finished. And, although this sounds harsher than I mean it to be, I wish I had opted never to read the book, so that I might preserve only good memories of this series in my mind.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A highly recommended series for teen girls, December 29, 2009

By 

Novel Teen (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: What Matters Most (Diary of a Teenage Girl) (Paperback)

Maya is trying to figure out what matters most in life. Should she graduate early? Date the boy she likes even though she knows it's a bad idea? Join a rock band and go on the road? Then her mom shows up and threatens everything Maya has worked so hard for. How should a Christian act toward a parent like her mom? Should Maya let her mom ruin her life again? Should she stand up to her?

I really enjoyed this series. Maya is a neat character. She's very independent and hard-working. She always tries to do the right thing, and when she fails and loses her temper, she eventually comes around and does the hard thing of apologizing. This book was really about how to love difficult people. My only wish, I would have liked to see more about how things respovel with Dominic. As with all Maya's stories, each chapter ends with one of Maya's Green Tip for the Day. I highly recommend this series for any teenage girl who loves to read. Maya is an awesome character to get to know.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great teen book, November 28, 2009

By 

P. Le Blanc (Yakima, WA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: What Matters Most (Diary of a Teenage Girl) (Paperback)

This is actually the last book in the Diary of a Teenage Girl series. I hadn't read any of the previous books, but I really liked this one. Maya is a carefree girl who has a lot on her plate and a history that got her to where she is. I found Maya to be a very lovable character. She was genuine and real. I feel like I want to go back and read the previous books to understand the journey of how Maya got to where she was in this book. I found this to be a story that I would definitely recommend and I appreciate having a book that relates to teens in a positive way and gives them good examples to follow.