The Actual Real Reality of Jennifer James

THE ACTUAL REAL REALITY OF JENNIFER JAMES by Gillian Shields
Category: Contemporary
Age Recommendation: Grades 9+
Release Date: 8/1/06
Publisher: HarperTempest
Reviewed by: Randstostipher "tallnlankyrn" Nguyen
Rating: 5 Stars

What do you get when you take the idea for an in-school reality TV show and cross it with a character reminiscent of Louise
Rennison's Georgia Nicolson? One of the freshest and cutest novels around, THE ACTUAL REAL REALITY OF
JENNIFER JAMES.

Jennifer James is not the most popular girl in her not-so-posh school, London Road Comprehensive. Boys may not necessarily
notice her and her family may not come from money. But the one thing that may be working for Jennifer is when the newest
reality TV show, Down the Bog, comes to her school and offers one lucky student a scholarship to St. Willibald's College.
This could be the chance for Jennifer to finally go to a good school, and all she needs is to be entered into the competition--but
it may not be that easy.

How the show works is that they choose two kids per grade and have a group of celebrities act as teachers at the school. The
entire time, cameras will be showing all the action that is happening inside the school, and each week there will be a certain
competition that the contestants and celebrities will have to compete in. And each week, viewers will call in and the one
student and the one celebrity with the lowest number of votes will have to leave.

Fortunately, Jennifer is oddly enough chosen to be a contestant. But that may be the only good news. There seems to be many
struggles that Jennifer is going to have to face, like the very popular and very rude Tallulah, bullying her way through the
competition and practically causing Jennifer's life to be miserable. Then there's Marcus, the guy who Jennifer has a crush on
but who also seems to be on Tallulah's radar. And then there is Jennifer's feminist mother Jocasta, who hates the idea of
Jennifer being on a reality show. For now, trying to win the competition could be the hardest obstacle that Jennifer has ever
faced.

THE ACTUAL REAL REALITY OF JENNIFER JAMES is witty, fun, and very compelling. Readers will get so attached to
Jennifer that they will desperately root for her all the way, whether she wins or not. Gillian Shields captures the true essence of
how it feels to want something very badly and to do the greatest thing to get it. The one thing that was on my mind during the
reading was hoping for there to be a sequel to this fantastic book.