Frozen Rodeo - Hardcover

Grade 8 Up-Peggy Fleming Farrell, 17, feels no obligation to live up to her famous namesake-much to the disappointment of her father, a retired professional skater hoping to make a comeback at a local summer rodeo-on-ice. Taking care of siblings Dorothy, Torvill, and Dean; coaching mom at Lamaze class; and working at the coffee bar at Gas 'n Git are enough responsibility for the self-involved teen. From the first paragraph in which Fleming dodges a pursuant Doberman as she Rollerblades to work, the action never pauses. Quirky characters and misadventures are humorous and enjoyable, though they require a stretch of readers' imagination. The realistic teen angst of falling in love with a waiter at IHOP and attending summer school alternates with a far-fetched robbery caper perpetrated by her missing French teacher in a town busy planning a July ice capade with animals. In a page-turning climax, the crime is foiled by the in-line skating heroine who sprays him with a turbo coffee dispenser, then skates off to the hospital to help her mother give birth to baby Elvis. Calamity strikes again as she runs into a car and is rescued by the "Kamikaze" bus driver she delivers coffee to each day. The refreshingly teen voice is dead-on here and stands up to the caricatured adults and happily ever after plot. Readers looking for more tales like Louise Rennison's Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging (HarperCollins, 2000) will find an amusing gem here.
Vicki Reutter, Cazenovia High School, NY
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.