The last thing Ashley Hannigan wants to do is go to her prom. It's not important. High school is not her favorite place. She wants to be done with school and move in with her boyfriend and start their life together. But she hasn't told her family that, plus she doesn't know if she can really trust her boyfriend. She has two brothers and her mom, a bus driver, is expecting another. Her dad's major project is to turn their basement into a bedroom for Ashley. He likes to take on big projects that never seem to get finished. Just one crazy loud family. Natalia, Ashley's best friend, lives next door. She is head of the Prom Committee and thinks, eats, and breathes prom! Her grandma doesn't speak English and wanders around the neighborhood usually ending up at Ashley's house making herself right at home with a can of Spaghetti-O's or in a fountain somewhere taking a swim. When the prom funds are stolen and there is a chance that there won't be a prom, unlikely Ashley steps in to help Natalia. She doesn't know why but in the end she gets a lot out of Project Prom. This book is a quick read. The style it's written in is easy going. It wasn't a book I thought I'd enjoy, not the genre I prefer but I liked it. Try reading it for yourself, it will surprise you. I think Natalia's grandmother was the smartest cookie in the whole book.

I purchased 5 copies of this book for my middle school classroom because Anderson is such a popular author among my female students. It was only after purchasing these books through Barnes and Nobel that I read the 1-star reviews on Amazon.com. The warnings of drugs, sex, and drinking made the book sound like a romance novel and because of that I did not want to put the books out on my shelves until I read the book for myself.
I have now read the book and I have to say that those who are upset about the content of the book have either not read modern young adult lit. and/or have not watched prime time TV the past few years. Yes, there are brief--and I mean brief--mentions of the "sins" I previously stated but Anderson does not go into ANY detail. I kept reading and waiting for the horrible smut that the 1-star reviewers warned me about but I got to the last page and I still hadn't found it.
This is not Anderson's best book but it is a good book and I think it is totally suitable for middle school students. (I would steer it a bit more towards 8th graders rather than 6th graders, though, since the main charcter is in high school. Sixth graders wouldn't relate too well to the main character.)

I'm a big fan of Laurie Halse Anderson's novels, but (like most YA authors) she usually writes about teens who are in some way unusual or extraordinary. This is hardly a bad thing, of course, because it makes for an interesting story -- but here, she creates the most ordinary of characters, and makes them remarkable.

The story is set in a rough, working-class Philadelphia school, where most of the students have little money, and only modest ambitions for the future. Over the course of the novel, the main characters find unexpected resources within themselves and their community, having a few adventures along the way. The conflicts -- students versus teachers, cliques versus cliques, girlfriends versus boyfriends -- are all handled with sensitivity and humour.

The main character in this book is Ashley Hannigan. She is 18 and has a boyfriend named TJ, who is 19. She is attending Carceras High School, and is graduating this year. She plans to move into an apartment with TJ shortly after, because she cant stand living with her parents. She works at EZ-CHEESE-Z, wearing a rat costume. She has 3 brothers, Shawn (12), Billy (4), and Steven (10). She has a best friend at school named Nat. Nat is on the prom committee. One day in Math class, their teacher Miss Crane is not having a good day. She had been bitchy for the past couple of weeks. They thought maybe she had gotten dumped or someone in her family had died, obviously something bad had been happening. Miss Crane was giving her students a test that counted 40% of their grade, when Mr. Banks (The principle) knocked on the door. The class knew Mr. Banks was going to ask Miss Crane to step into the hall, which meant no more test. When he asked Miss Crane to step out into the hallway, she didn't move. A police woman came in the room and escorted her out. Nat was the only one who knew what was going on and while everyone else screamed, cheered, and danced around, she sat there not saying a word. At lunch Nat told Ashley why Miss Crane had to be questioned, it was because she had been stealing the prom money. This meant their would be no prom. To Ashley, the prom wasn't important, but she knew that Nat and everyone else were really excited about it. Nat and Ashley (even though she didn't like dances) decided to help and set up a prom for everyone at the school, considering they didn't have the money to rent a hotel, they would have it in the GYM.
Many people thought it was stupid, but at least there was going to be a prom. It wasn't going very well, without money they couldn't afford anything. The kids hated having to buy tickets again, even if they were only $10. Only thirteen people had bought tickets so far. Ashley, her family, and Nat went to the mall to buy prom decorations. Ashley's mom took her to a dress store and bought her a brand new dress, even though they couldn't afford it. Somehow Ashley's dress had gotten into the washing machine and was ruined. Her mom was heartbroken, she thought she had ruined the chance for Ashley to go to the prom, but she didn't. Ashley couldn't go to the prom because she had cut class and had skipped to many detentions. Nat's grandmother had made Ashley another dress. Her family (mom and aunts) got her ready. Before the prom started Nat's grandmother went missing. They figured she would be at the prom so that's the first place they checked. Ashley decided to sneak into the prom. She was having a blast (she even danced) until she got arrested. Since the judge and her mom used to go to high school together they decided to drop all the charges. Her and TJ broke up for good and she moved in with Nat paying rent to Nat's father.

when you get to the middle it gets better. i wrote anderson about this book becasue i was pleased with it. you will be too.