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Summary
Summary
An uptight Brit and a hard-partying American swap lives in the smartest comedy of the season.
Take an administrative snafu, a bad breakup, and "The Hot-Tub Incident," and you've got two thoroughly unprepared sophomores on a semester abroad. For American party girl Tasha, an escape to Oxford may be a chance to ditch her fame as a tabloid temptress, but wading Uggs-deep in feminist theory is not her idea of a break. Meanwhile, the British half of the exchange, studious Emily, nurses an aching heart amid the bikinis and beer pong of U.C. Santa Barbara. With an anthropologist's eye for detail and a true ear for teen-speak, Abby McDonald crafts a funny, fast-paced, poignant look at survival, sisterhood, and the surprising ways we discover our true selves.
Author Notes
Abby McDonald is the author of four other young adult novels with Candlewick Press. Originally from England, she now lives in Los Angeles.
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
First-time novelist McDonald skewers college life in this comic novel that has an uptight Oxford student switching places with a University of California party girl. Both are eager to flee their home campuses: Tasha is trying to dodge publicity surrounding her hot-tub antics with a TV star (aka "Tubgate"), and Emily has just been dumped ("As much as I-and my liberated, post-third-wave feminist self-hate to admit it.... This is all because of Sebastian"). A global exchange program seems the perfect escape, but creates more problems than it solves. While Emily has trouble loosening up in Santa Barbara (she had intended to spend the semester at Harvard), Tasha struggles to convince her peers and professor that she has a functional brain. McDonald plays with stereotypical images of Americans and Brits, painting both in broad strokes, but also challenges standard definitions of feminism. Though the protagonists' traumas, romantic interests and growing self-awareness are perhaps too neatly paralleled, the characters' strong personalities and the book's easy sense of humor will keep readers entertained. Ages 14-up. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
Scandal at home causes Tasha to flee to Oxford University; a broken heart motivates her uptight British exchange-student counterpart, Emily, to live for three months in Southern California. As the chapters alternate between Tasha's and Emily's perspectives, the plot falters with too many farfetched circumstances. Humorous incidents, such as Tasha's experience at a feminist protest, carry the story to a predictable yet entertaining conclusion. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Tubgate: the popular term used to describe California party-girl Tasha's videotaped hot-tubbing with a famous actor. It's all over the Internet and has made her life a living hell and so she accepts a last-second foreign-exchange swap with straitlaced Oxford sophomore Emily. The plot splits into alternating story lines, with each girl suffering vastly disparate academic requirements, hesitant first friendships, and romantic customs. Finally, the two use e-mail to send each other a switch survival guide, but putting on acts (Emily as slutty wild child infiltrating Santa Barbara's junior Stepford experience and Tasha as sober scholar stressed over minimal academic criteria ) is more difficult than they guessed. Though the title portends bubbly identity mishaps and it's true that this would make a slam-dunk teen movie McDonald's debut is more sober than it sounds, and you can almost feel her copious talents bursting at the seams of the restrictive plot. With its intelligent writing and interesting takes on feminism, this will be plenty popular with the intended set, but it's what McDonald does next that should be really interesting.--Kraus, Daniel Copyright 2009 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up-What happens when a UC Santa Barbara college student agrees to a last-minute study abroad switch with a straight-laced political science student from Oxford? In alternating chapters of the novel (Candlewick, 2009) by Abby McDonald, American party girl Tasha and studious British girl Emily share their experiences of being thrust into a new culture. Both girls are running form their situations for different reasons and find their new environments challenging and isolating in ways that they didn't foresee. Katherine Kellgren does a fabulous job with both the accents and the personalities of the two girls, making their journeys of self-discovery come alive. The story does contain a fair number of adult situations-drinking, partying, and wild college action-but these situations are realistic and don't come across as gratuitous. Tasha is running away from an incident where a video of her making out with a celebrity has gone viral on the Internet, and her resolution of what has become a common and often devastating situation is handled with sensitivity and smarts. The girls get to know each other and become a support system through instant messaging and phone calls, not meeting until the very end in a satisfying conclusion. A fabulous listen with a smart and sassy voice and complex characters that will engage teenagers.-Genevieve Gallagher, Charlottesville High School, Charlottesville, VA (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
When Tasha's hot-tub exploits hit the tabloids and Emily's boyfriend dumps her, they both look for a quick escape from college. An exchange program provides an opportunity, provided they do a complete swap: Tasha's sunny U.C. Santa Barbara for Emily's Oxford in chilly England. Tasha, a blond, tan party-girl, vows to make the most of top-tier Oxford by staying away from booze and sticking to her studies. Emily, an anal-retentive academic all-star, wants to loosen up and enjoy the beachy scene at UCSB. The girls supply funny, self-deprecating narration in alternating chapters, and their distinct voices highlight marked differences in attitudes and aesthetics. When both suffer humiliation attempting to fit in, they e-mail each other for help. What seems like a formulaic plot takes interesting, unexpected directions as the girls navigate unfamiliar terrain, face unexpected cruelties and discover new parts of themselves. Important questions emerge from this frothy novel: Can't smart girls embrace frivolity, beauty and sexuality without guilt? Can't they have fun and be serious too? McDonald cleverly answers. Her ostensibly simple, bubble-gum debut is actually chock-full of substance. (Fiction. 14 up) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Excerpts
Excerpts
Tasha This is so not a good idea. I'm barely five minutes into my first class of the semes¥ter when it hits me just how bad an idea this is. Sure, it's not "getting into the hot tub with Tyler Trask while the cameras are rolling" bad, but then what is? I would have to search the world for the people who decided Crocs were a cute shoe concept before I found an idea as bad as that, but taking my semester abroad placement at Oxford University when I barely scrape a 3.0 GPA? Way up there on the dumb-ass rankings. ". . . By now, you'll all be familiar with the basic texts on the reading list . . ." I glance down at the dense two-page list they included in my exchange information pack, full of titles like Political Innovation and Conceptual Change, and have to remind myself to breathe. I only arrived in England a couple of days ago, but apparently hell waits for no girl, even if she's suffering killer jet lag. ". . . And we've got a new face with us. Natasha Collins, welcome." My head jerks up, and I look around to find the group staring at me. Instead of the packed, anonymous lecture halls I'm used to back home, I'm sitting in a dim, wood-paneled room, one of a group of just ten students balanced on battered couches and overstuffed armchairs. "Would you like to introduce yourself?" Professor Susanne Elliot asks, her salt-and-pepper hair falling around a face that, back home, would have been Botoxed into oblivion. "Umm, sure," I begin. "I'm Tash - Natasha," I correct myself. I keep forgetting, Tasha is no more: the version of myself I left giggling and drunk in that hot tub. "I'm here from UCSB for the semester." "UCSB?" Elliot repeats, frowning. Yep - definitely no Botox. "University of California?" I explain hesitantly. "I go to school in Santa Barbara." "Oh." Elliot seems surprised. She shuffles her papers, searching for something. "We don't usually exchange with that university." "It was a kind of last-minute thing." I begin to pick the clear varnish on my thumb nail and ignore the amused looks my classmates are exchanging. I don't know why they have to be so snobby about it. I mean, sure, it's not Stanford, but the UC system is totally second tier! "Santa Barbara," the professor repeats. "And what were you studying there?" She looks over her thin wire-rimmed glasses at me. "I'm . . . undeclared." My discomfort grows. Technically that's not quite true, but if I'd told the Global Exchange crew what my classes were, they'd have put me on some kind of international blacklist and branded me unfit for study. "Well." She pauses. "Welcome to Oxford. I'm sure you'll find Theory of Politics very . . . interesting." She moves on to talk about research-paper schedules, but I catch the slight smirk all the same. Sinking back in my seat, I sneak a look at my classmates. Dressed in an assortment of preppy sweaters, Oxford shirts, and neat jeans, they look totally at ease: nodding along and exchanging familiar smiles, but then again - they would. They've all spent the past year and a half bonding over dusty library books and term papers while I was five thousand miles away, blowing off classes to hang at the beach and shop. I may have a great tan and awesome bargain-hunting skills, but somehow I don't think those will count for much here. ". . . So I suppose that's all. Any questions?" Professor Elliot looks at us expectantly. I had plenty. "What the hell am I doing here?" for a start and "Why didn't I just go volunteer in Guatemala like my mom suggested?" I'd been so focused on getting out of California, I hadn't really thought about what would come next. "I have one." The sporty blond girl beside me raises her hand a little. "Will we be starting with power Excerpted from Sophomore Switch by Abby McDonald All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
