chipperDutton Juvenile, hardcover (the paperback is due in March 2009)
272 pages, young adult fiction
Currently in print
***
Let me be frank here: I honestly wasn't planning to post another book review this close on the heels of my last few, because this isn't the all-book-reviews, all-the-time channel. But since it's my channel, I figure I can go ahead and get a little heavy on the reviewing for the sake of something really awesome. And this is something really awesome.
Hot Lunch is the story of Molly Ollinger, a self-made school outcast whose rather aggressive conflict with Cassie, the perky new blonde girl at Sunshine Day (the private high school they both attend) leads to a creative new form of punishment: Molly and Cassie are assigned to run the school cafeteria. During the elective periods and study hall, of course, since it would be illegal to actually interfere with their class time. The girls are naturally less than thrilled about the situation...especially since neither knows how to cook.
And that would be where the fun starts.
Hot Lunch is fun, fast, and frothy...or at least, it feels that way, until you realize that the author is using a very well-constructed setting to teach some important rules about respecting your food, your friends, and yourself. From social change to the importance of local farms, Bradley covers a surprising range of topics in a relatively short book, and has time to make the characters people. Even the ones who feel very shallow to start with turn out to have a reality to them that is frankly lovely. I think the only caricature in the book is probably the school's horrible, stereotypical lunch lady, and since she's a symbol as much as she's a character, that's entirely forgivable.
And here's the thing -- the real reason I finished this book and felt compelled to review it. I didn't hear of this book until I owned it. And I only wound up owning it because it was sitting on a stack of free books and had a cute blue-haired girl on the cover. I'm a sucker for blue hair. And this book is awesome! It's well-written. It's fun. It's got a female lead, but isn't written in a way that makes it a 'girl' book (and that isn't true of many current YA non-fantasy books -- they may be well-written, and I enjoy a lot of them, but they're very much gender-specific). It's not a boy book. It's just a book, and it's a very good one.
I enjoyed this book, and I'm a grownup. I would happily hand it to any of my teen acquaintances. It's not sexy enough to make young teens uncomfortable; it's not sanitized to the point of being condescending or dull to older teens. It's just a perfect little slice of high school life the way we all sort of wished it was going to be, sprinkled with some very important and topical ideas. Note that I would also hand it to my adult friends; Autumn has it right now, and Kate's next in line.
It's a short enough book that if you're a fast reader, you may want to wait for paperback, but really, I recommend it highly as a way to kill a few hours, and maybe revitalize a few brain cells. Big fun. Trust me.
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