Author:       Anne Dayton & May Vanderbilt

Publisher:    Faith Words/Hachette

ISBN:          978-0-446-40775-7

Website:      http://anneandmay.com/ 

Type:         Fiction:YA Christian

Pages:        292 Trade Paperback

Purchase:    $9.99 @ Amazon.com (HERE)

The Story

“Ana Dominguez was happy in San Jose, but everything changed when her dad moved the family to Half Moon Bay, California, to open a law practice. Her parents think she’s settling into her new school nicely, but she has them fooled. Riley, the most popular girl in school, has picked Ana as enemy #1, and Tyler, Ana’s crush, doesn’t even know Ana exists.

When Ana ends up in detention with Riley, her life suddenly changes. When Ana, Riley, Christine, and Zoe share their essays on “The Day My Life Changed,” it turns out they have more in common than they ever would have imagined. Now as Ana lives out her faith, she and Zoe are determined to befriend Riley and Christine. But the drama of high school life has only just begun…”

(Above excerpt is from the cover of The Miracle Girls)

The Review

Being a HUGE fan of Shelley Adina’s It’s All About Us Series, Miriam at Hachette recommended that I try out The Miracle Girls.   I was excited to read it and, now in the aftermath, am so glad that I did!  Like Adina’s series, The Miracle Girls is a book are about Christian girls navigating their way through high school. 

The Miracle Girlsis the story of Ana, a 14-going-on-15 year old high school freshman.  She has recently moved from San Jose to Half Moon Bay and needs to start all over again in making friends.  By the way, if you’ve never visited Half Moon Bay or Santa Cruz, you’re missing out!  It’s absolutely gorgeous!  You look to the east and there are redwoods and pines forming amazing forests and parks and then you turn to the west and you are facing the ocean.  Northern California is just so “earthy” and the trends and culture there is really cool.  It’s fabulous! 

Ana is being prepared for her quince by her EXTREMELY strict parents.  Although she’s not excited about it, her nanny/housekeeper Maria encourages her to be find enthusiasm for it and explains how special it is.  The wonderful thing about Ana is that she is very smart.  Ana truly cares about being a good Christian, studying hard to get great grades, and generally doing the right thing.  She even recognizes that having mean thoughts about others is considered sinful.  Like most other teenage girls, she has a crush on that gorgeous, popular boy. 

“The Miracle Girls”  are formed via a writing assignment in detention one afternoon.  Four girls, who are very unlikely friends, discover that they all have been in a “life or death” experience in which God spared their lives.  This common thread eventually draws 3 of the 4 of them together.  The 4th girl is the popular cheerleader who most likely would never join their small group.  But, eventually God brings them all together just in time for the quince.  Together the unlikely foursome build an incredible friendship.

What I really like about this book is that our heroine, Ana, is actively involved with community service, church and school.  And, she does it in such a way that it’s COOL to be that way.  She doesn’t get discouraged when she is teased and called “God Girl.”  She truly does care about what her parents think and she takes responsibility for her actions.  All of these things, I feel, are a great influence on today’s teens.  These are the types of characteristics that we want our daughters to own.   This book is something that I would definitely recommend to my daughters and other girls of a similar age or older.  POSITIVE YA Fiction is so “in” in my book! 

On Sher’s “Out of Ten Scale:”

I was curious about how two authors on separate coasts write a book together.  I found on their website a recent “blog radio” webcast in which Miriam of Hachette (if you don’t know her… she’s just AWESOME) interviews Anne, May and also Shelley Adina.   I wish I had known when this was taking place because I would have loved to have called in!  The link to the webcast is below if you are interested in listening to it.  I played it while I wrote up some reviews and read posts in my Google Reader.  I thoroughly enjoyed it!

If you can’t tell by now, I really loved this book.  I am looking forward to reading and reviewing Breaking Up Is Hard to Do, the next installment in The Miracle Girls Series.  For the genre Fiction:YA/Christian, I am going to rate this book a 9 OUT OF 10. 

My MANY thanks to Miriam for sharing this book with me!

CLICK HERE FOR WEBSITE WITH BLOG RADIO INTERVIEW

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