Hancock Park
by Isabel Kaplan

    HANCOCK PARK by Isabel Kaplan
    Category:  Contemporary
    Age Recommendation:  Grades 9+
    Release Date:  6/30/09
    Publisher:  HarperTeen
    Reviewed by:  Amber Gibson
    Rating:  4 Stars


    Living in Hancock Park doesn’t make Becky Miller so different from the average teen girl. She still has the same
    awkward family issues, boy confusion, and wants to be accepted by the most famous and popular girls at
    Whitbread, her upper-class girls school where almost everyone is somehow connected to Hollywood. However,
    the whole moving into the Four Seasons Beverly Hills thing and having a style guru mother who has her own TV
    show kind of sets Becky apart from the blue-collar working girl.

    Like many Hollywood stars, Becky’s life might appear to be all fun and glam, but that’s far from the truth. No, she
    doesn’t have a cocaine problem (her friend Alissa is another story) and she doesn’t have a closet full of Jimmy
    Choos (borrowing mom’s is much more frugal). Becky doesn’t even have the hallmark Hollywood eating disorder,
    despite her grandmother’s attempts to foster anorexia in the poor girl. All things considered, Becky has a rather
    healthy mix of self-esteem tempered with the typical anxieties and insecurities that all young adults can identify with.

    Starting junior year while simultaneously trying to find a best friend replacement and dealing with her parents’
    divorce is difficult for Becky. She finds solace in her long-time psychiatrist (another prerequisite to living in
    Hollywood, or so it seems), until it is determined that her psychiatrist has been overdosing her on medication since
    she was ten.

    School understandably takes a backseat to the social drama of junior year. Choosing between the popularity and
    dazzling beauty of the Trinity (the hottest girls in school) and drama geek Taylor for best friend replacement is
    constantly on Becky’s mind. Then there’s Aaron, the soccer player who just moved back to Hancock Park – fresh
    meat in the Trinity’s eyes, and he seems to have his eye on Becky. So it’s no surprise when Becky finds herself at
    her first Pimps and Hos Halloween party.

    Junior year is sure to bring a lot of changes, and if she isn’t careful, Becky may find herself light-years from the
    down-to-earth, Model United Nations girl that she once was. Then again, is that necessarily a bad thing?

    With life a whirlwind hot mess around her, Becky is just another teen girl trying to survive, albeit in quite luxurious
    circumstances. The Trinity are quite mild as Whitbread’s reigning mean girls, but otherwise the characters are
    relatively believable. Isabel Kaplan spins a Hollywood tale with heart, which fans of Alyson Noel or Melissa Walker
    will enjoy.