Absolutely Maybe
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4.3 • 3 Ratings
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
Lisa Yee makes her YA debut with this hilarious novel about a charm-school dropout who becomes a drop-dead charmer on a quest for her father in California.Meet Maybelline Mary Katherine Mary Ann Chestnut, named for two Miss Americas and her mother Chessy's favorite brand of mascara. Chessy teaches the students in her charm school her Seven Select Rules for Young Ladies, but she won't tell Maybe who her real father is -- or protect her from her latest scuzzball boyfriend. So Maybe hitches a ride to California with her friends Hollywood and Thammasat Tantipinichwong Schneider (aka Ted) -- and what she finds there is funny, sad, true, and inspiring . . . vintage Lisa Yee.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Moving from middle grade into YA fiction, Yee (Millicent Min, Girl Genius) brings both a flair for comic timing and a sense of pathos. Maybe (short for Maybelline, her mother's favorite mascara) dyes her hair with Kool-Aid, hides her figure under baggy T-shirts and wears ratty sneakers all acts of rebellion against her alcoholic, pageant-queen mom, proprietor of a charm school in Kissimee, Fla.. After her serial bride mother's latest fianc attempts to rape her (and tells her credulous mother that Maybe came on to him), Maybe runs away to Los Angeles in search of the father she's never met, armed with only his first name, plus her two best friends: supportive Ted and Hollywood, who is going to study filmmaking at USC. Although things fall into place rather neatly (Ted lands a job with a benevolent Gloria Swanson type; Hollywood wins a prize for a documentary about Maybe, and after one or two bumps, Maybe finds a luxurious home with a former stepfather), the characters are complex and their friendships layered they sweep readers up in their path. Ages 12 up.
