Don't Ever Change

Gr 9 Up—After Eva's English teacher Mr. Roush tells her that she needs to write what she knows, the teen decides to spend the summer between graduating high school and starting college on the other side of the country in Boston. She doesn't feel anything in her life to this point is worth putting on paper, however, and decides to try out other people's experiences. Eva becomes a camp counselor, she goes out with Elliott and considers sleeping with him, and goes out with a friend's ex-boyfriend. Nothing affects Eva like she thinks it would, but she keeps attempting to change herself to find things worth writing about. Through all of these changes, the protagonist drives away her friends and snaps at her family. Eva works hard to control what people think of her, but she makes snap judgments about others. Though told from Eva's first person point of view, she is a hard character to sympathize or empathize with as she struggles to change herself based on how she she's perceived. Her eventual growth doesn't seem to come about organically, but feels tacked on. With the exception of Eva's sister Courtney, the secondary characters are not fully fleshed out. Some references to drinking and sex make this title appropriate for mature teens.