Party Girl

Reason I Chose This Book

I chose this book because it was on the Urban Fiction list at my library and because it was written in 1998, around the beginning of the popularity of this genre. I thought it would be interesting to read an older more “classic-like” novel in this genre. It is also a shorter and easier read.

Bibliographic Information

Author: Lynne Ewing

Publisher: Laurel Leaf

ISBN: 037580210X

Copyright Date: 1998

Genre

Urban Fiction

About the Author

Lynne Ewing has written two young adult novels, Party Girl and Drive-By. She also works with troubled teens, as a counselor. Ewing also writes the series Son of the Dark and Daughters of the Moon and Sisters of Isis, her newest.

Reader’s Annotation

Kata loses her best friend and gang member Ana. The gang is watching her to see how she will react. Her mother is not watching her, but she wishes she would. Will Kata avenge Ana’s death? What will Kata decide and more importantly, what will she think of her decisions.

Plot Summary

Kata is a young, Hispanic teen whom likes to dance and hang out with her friends. The problem is, they keep disappearing. Kata’s best friend, Ana, is killed by opposing gang members and Kata finds herself at yet another teen funeral, caught up in yet another gang war. Kata’s urge to avenge her death is strong even though she knows it’s not the best decision. Kata wishes she could turn to her mother for help, but her mother has some of her own problems, from men to alcohol. Even one of Kata’s best friends, who was also Ana’s lover for some time, can’t understand what Kata is going through. No one seems to understand her, not even her love interest. When Kata goes to Avenge Ana’s death, she learns the truth about some missing pieces to the story, and, with the help of her mother’s boyfriend, makes a decision about “the life” she is wrapped up in.

Critical Analysis

This book reads a little bit like an after school special. It reflects life for teens in gangs, and yet manages to be somewhat uplifting in the end, albeit cliché. The setting seems vaguely realistic, yet the characters and the story are underdeveloped. The main character’s emotional state is especially lacking, which, given the situation’s she is facing seems pertinent. This book is categorized as being for older and younger teens, but an older teen might get bored with the simplicity of the dialogue. Given that it is one of the older urban fiction stories (thus one of the leading), my guess is that it probably got some decent attention when it came out, because it addressed teen gangs and other teen issues whereas there wasn’t a lot of literature on that subject at the time. 

Themes/Issues/Tags

Identity, Teen parenting, Gangs, Coming of age, Death, Teen/Parent Relationships, Religion, Hispanic Americans, Los Angeles

Controversial Subject Matter

Gang involvement and gang retaliation

Book Talking Ideas

Topic hooks 

Losing a friend (either growing apart or death or some other tragedy)

Gangs- getting into them and getting out of them

Character hook- Role play Kata and Anna (from the grave) around the idea of avenging her death or not       

Curriculum Ties

Community -Violence

Reading Level

11+

Interest Level

 14-17