A Not So Simple Life: Diary of a Teenage Girl
Melody Carlson
Multnomah, July 2008, 256 pp., $12.99, www.mpbooks.com
“These two things I know for sure: (1) nothing about life is fair, and (2) it is not going to get better.” This is how the book begins, as teenage Maya reveals her innermost feelings in a journal entry.
This work of fiction is a one-year journal, chronicling Maya’s real-life struggles as the bi-racial daughter of divorced, addicted, and absent parents. Carlson’s writing is believable and will connect with a teenage female audience, especially those who can identify with living a not-so-simple life in a complicated family. The group reading guide and online reading resources make this a good selection for reading groups. Maya dreams of someday writing a “green” column, so she includes earth-friendly information at the close of each journal entry, giving the reader a mini-education about environmental issues.
As Maya closes her journal, she writes, “Maybe we all need to consider who created the earth. And if that’s God, which I have finally come to believe, then maybe we need to ask Him what He’d like us to do to take better care of it.”
