I seem to be on a bit of a Royal Roll right now. First there was Mrs. Queen Takes the Train then Henry V. In the royal world of insects there were the queen bees in Death by a HoneyBee and Shoofly Pie.
Now I am ready to read a book I bought earlier this year: The Queen of Kentucky by Alecia Whitaker.
Meet 14-year-old Ricky Jo on her first day in public high school after attending grades K-8 in a Catholic school. She lives in a small farming town of Breckinridge, Kentucky. She wants to belong with the popular girls, find a best friend, and start puberty. (Be careful what you wish for Ricky Jo.)
She introduces herself to her classmates as Ericka as "double names sound so babyish." Or so she tells her best friend Luke.
Reading about her steps and missteps, I am thrown back into halls of high school. I can feel the jitters that Ericka experiences when she tries out for the cheerleading squad. (She makes it, I didn't.) And those funny, fluttery feelings when the cute boy pays attention to her. And the frustration of trying to remember the combination to her locker.
Ericka just wants to fit in and be popular. She wants to break away from the 4-H Club and join in with the country club set. The only problem is she is not quite sure how to accomplish that feat.
I have only read a couple of chapters but I already like Ericka and am sure that her first year in high school will turn out to be filled with lessons about loyalty and being one's self that she will carry with her into adulthood.
Oh dear. There's the bell. Now I must get to class.
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