The latest from National Book Award Finalist Julie Anne Peters, It’s Our Prom (So Deal With It), is a sometimes comical and often insightful look at a high school rite of passage.
Prom is, was, and always will be an event meant for the popular kids, the jocks, the socials and the kids with money – the geeks, freaks, and uniques have never felt welcome. Forget about attending if you don’t have a date, can’t afford the dress, tux, limo, or high ticket price. And even if you do go, it’s just a boring dance where the school’s most popular kids elect each other as king/queen. But this year it may be different: Azure’s principal invites her to sit on the committee to create an “alternate prom” that will be more inclusive to the whole student body. She jumps at the chance to make prom into something everyone would want to attend, and she enlists the help of her best friends, Luke and Radhika, to join the prom com.
Planning an alternative prom is a lot harder than Azure thought, though. They face some heavy opposition to the changes they’d like to make, they’re way low on money, have lost their venue, and are basically clueless about all the logistics necessary to pull off this event. Nevertheless, Azure and Luke are determined to succeed, since they both have the secret desire to ask Radhika to the prom. But something is bothering their best friend (and secret crush), and neither Azure nor Luke can figure out what’s wrong with Radhika. They’re worried that the stress of prom planning, graduation, and college may push their friendship to the breaking point.
Azure and Luke alternate narrating this story full of miscommunication, logistical nightmares, and unrequited love. For both Azure and Luke, sexual orientation (she’s a lesbian, he’s bisexual) is an important part of their personalities and the reason they want to organize the alternative prom; but really, this story is about facing the inevitable changes that come at the end of high school, opening up to new possibilities and relationships, and having a kick ass time with your friends at your Senior Prom.
- Posted by Cori