Prom Reading (copy)

Window-shopping is best during springtime. The time when new formals, placed in strategic, teenage-alluring displays, set the trend for the season. In one glimpse, prom goers can register whether Easter egg colors, halters, or ruffles will be the hottest look.

Just last week, I drove by my favorite corner shop, when a yellow-sequence number blinded me. Like the brass pendulum of a hypnotist, I was transported to 1982 and my first prom. What joy! I was going to the senior prom with a senior.

So what you say? Well, I was a freshman at the time; making me the first in the group to dance with other seniors as the infamous “Stairway to Heaven” played in the dimly lit high school cafeteria.

Why was I special? My hair was “Ripley’s Believe It or Not” straight; one could take the point of a pencil and drag it from top to bottom without one tangle. My braces seemed to shine like rhinestones and my freckles brought to mind the infinite stars. Mother Nature served as the cruelest jokester, for the Milky Way crossed just above my upper lip.

I know what you are thinking, “Somebody asked me out?” My date was a friend and not a romantic Fabio. At 5’8” and 265 pounds, he more than doubled my weight. Are you getting the picture? I was going to the prom with someone equivalent to a big-boned cousin.

What if you feel some altruistic need to supply your friends with dates before yourself? That is Laura’s dilemma in Blake Nelson’s Prom Anonymous. The obsessive and compulsive prom organizer, Laura, schedules luncheons to go over colors to wear, suitable shoes, and “gaudiless” accessories—including dates. Being caught-up into organizing the perfect prom; she forgets to find a date.

In Top Ten Uses for an Unworn Prom Dress by Tina Ferraro, Nicki finds herself jilted two days before the big event. What is she to do? She loves her “perfectly magical pink vintage dress,” and even though she will get a nice cash back sum, she just cannot part with it. Get a new date or beg and plead with the ex-boyfriend to take her back, Nicki is feeling the heat.

Both books are set to tickle any young adults’ spine, as they contemplate the biggest night of their high school life with humor. By the way, my 1982 prom date turned out to be super fun. After we made our appearance, we headed out to an all-you-can-eat crab legs shack. We both rolled out of the restaurant laughing.

Prom Reading (copy)

http://maggiereads.blogspot.com/2007/03/prom-reading-copy.html