Wonderland: A Year in the Life of an American High School (Hardcover)

by Michael Bamberger (Author) "The roles must be filled..." (more)
Key Phrases: junior dinner dance, prom theme, bob costa, Michael Bamberger, Prom Committee, John Mayer (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
For the last 30 years, Pennsbury High, a huge public school in Fairless Hills, Pa., has staged such an over-the-top senior prom that thousands of local residents turn out on prom night just to watch the seniors enter their "Wonderland." Bamberger, a Sports Illustrated senior writer, spent a school year with Pennsbury's seniors, recording their "true-life" stories. Since prom planning starts in September and climaxes in May, the event is both a good hook for readers and a convenient organizational device for various subplots that develop month by month. Will up-and-coming musician John Mayer finally agree to play for the prom? Will Rob and Stephanie still go to the prom, now that they're parents of a newborn baby? Will Lindsey keep co-chairing the prom committee even though she needs heart surgery? Bamberger cuts from one subplot to the next like a seasoned TV soap director, breaking away from each story just when it gets juicy. While much of the drama is about who's attracted to whom (high school kids are "on display, like mating birds"), for variety there's an ace student involved in a drinking death, another coping with cerebral palsy, some with college admissions problems, one or two kids planning for upward mobility via sports, plus a few faculty members with their own issues. Bamberger's teens may not be 100% typical, but they offer a good window onto at least a segment of contemporary teen culture.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From The New Yorker
The juniors and seniors of Pennsbury High—whose fortunes Bamberger traces in this account of a year in the life of a suburban Pennsylvania public school—are a familiar menagerie: jocks, grocery baggers, the odd A.V. Club geek. But their earnestness about the renowned, over-the-top Pennsbury Prom is striking. One student schemes to secure the DeLorean from "Back to the Future" as transportation. It's a fitting detail; although Bamberger means to present a microcosm of contemporary middle-class America, his weakness for quaint traditions results in a book that feels more nostalgic than up to date. It's unclear whether Bamberger found a campus preserved in fifties-era amber or merely ignored aspects of it that would complicate his white-bread vision. Still, he succeeds in evoking the strangely obdurate innocence of a place where generations come and go but the school rest rooms still smell of "grapefruit disinfectant."
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press; 2nd edition (April 16, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0871139170
• ISBN-13: 978-0871139177
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #161,090 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Wonder" Boys and Girls, June 10, 2004

By	Little Willow (USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

WONDERLAND by Michael Bamberger follows the lives and loves at a Pennsylvania high school for a year. He profiles not just the students but some of the teachers and parents as well as the principal. There are the popular kids; the audio/visual boys; the jocks, both female and male; the Homecoming Queen; the teen parents; all sharing their experiences.

The title is two-fold. The book begins with a passage by Lewis Carroll, whose classic work Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a coming-of-age tale in its own right. One of the boys profiled in this work attempts to get John Mayer, the singer / songwriter / guitarist, to perform at their school prom. Mayer has a song entitled "Your Body is a Wonderland." It is interesting to note that the student body had an interest in Mayer prior to his winning Grammy awards; in fact, the book shows his rise to fame over the course of the school year, as well as the band Maroon 5.

Happily, the focus of the book is not on songwriters or pop culture, but the experiences of teens. They offer drama, comedy and tragedy. Such is real life.

Wonderland is a very quick read and worth picking up. Never invasive, never an expose, this book tells it how it is. The writer never judges the actions of the teens; he lets their actions speak for themselves. Each chapter is named after a month, September through May. I would have liked to have read more about finals and graduation, rather than cutting off after the prom in May. However, I liked the last bit wrapping up what happened the summer and fall after the school year, and the fact that the author tied it into his own past and present experiences.

This study of a year in the life of high school students to shows that, when you get down to it, teenagers across the nation have more in common than they might think. Not only that, but it will appeal to all ages, because many of the same hobbies, goals, hopes, fears, loves and losses of the present generation are those of generations past.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It Reads Like a Soap (and There's Nothing Wrong With That), August 18, 2004

By	Paul Allaer (Cincinnati) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I picked up this book on the fly from my local library, as I was getting ready to go on vacation and in need of some "beach reading" (literally). I had vaguely heard about the book, primarily because of the sub-plot involving one of the high school kids trying to get John Mayer to perform at the prom.

As it turns out, this reads like a baby eats candy: effortlessly. The author (a senior writer at Sports illustrated) follows the high school kids at Pennsbury HS (in suburban PA) for the entire 02-03 academic year. He picks about 10 kids around which to focus the main developments through the school year, and it really is a soap. Will the football team QB get a scholarschip at a big school? What happens to the prom queen with the mysterious boyfriend that nobody ever sees? Can the go-get-'em junior really convince then pre-Grammy winner and up-and-coming John Mayer to play at the prom? Before you realize it, you are turning the pages, eager to find out how it all plays out.

When I'm on vacation, on a beach, this is exactly the type of book I want to read: entertaining, engaging, not too complex, yet real. Highly recommended for brainless, effortless summer reading!

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars couldn't have said it better, June 24, 2004

By A Customer

No matter where you are from or what high school you went to, everyone can relate to this book. I very recently graduated from high school (class of '03, the same year as the kids in the book) and just happened upon this book at the airport. Before I even landed at my destination, I had finished it. The people in this story are the same characters at every high school. Every school has it's jocks and it's preps and it's preverbial screw-ups. Bambarger did an amazing job of capturing high school as it is lived, even if the prom at the end of the year is the climax. High school even only having been gone a year now, seems like another lifetime and after reading this book it seems like just yesterday I was preparing for my five day prom. Pick it up, I promise you'll love it as much as I did.