What Would Emma Do?

by Eileen Cook

Book Overview

Thou Shalt Not Kiss Thy Best Friend's Boyfriend...again...

There is no greater sin than kissing your best friend's boyfriend. So when Emma breaks that golden rule, she knows she's messed up big-time...especially since she lives in the smallest town ever, where everyone knows everything about everyone else...and especially since she maybe kinda wants to do it again. Now her best friend isn't speaking to her, her best guy friend is making things...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1416974326
• ISBN13: 9781416974321
• Release Date: December 2008
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 4.9" x 6.9"
• Age Range: 12 to 17 years
• Grade Range: Grades 7 to 12

Customer Reviews

Hilarious & Thought-Provoking

I adored this book. Eileen Cook has created a heroine who is smart, funny and deep and whose struggles with her social life, love life, community and faith are both realistic and poignant. I particularly loved Emma's conversations with Jesus--they were so funny and at the same time showed so clearly the angst of being a teenager, trying to be a good person and do the right thing when nothing is black and white. And there is a serious message here about the nature of an honest (albeit imperfect) faith compared with the hypocrisy and mob mentality that can come with narrow-minded fanaticism. Lot's of great characters, great writing, a compelling story--this book has everything!

Courtesy of Teens Read Too

Emma was raised by her single mom in a small town in the middle of Illinois. She goes to a private Christian high school which is socially ruled by the local minister's daughter, Darci. She has a damaged relationship with her best friend, Joann, and her boyfriend, Colin. Everything was going fine until at Christmas Emma and Colin kissed. Even though the kiss was in a mall in a different town, it happened right in front of Joann's mother. Now Emma runs track and wants to get a full ride scholarship to Northwestern University. She wants out. Then Darci and her BFF, Kimberly, do something outrageous and Emma is the witness. Should she tell what she knows even if it means that she might lose her scholarship? She keeps trying to figure out what it means to do the right thing. I enjoyed this book very much. It has a great lesson about what is important, that being a person with a lot of integrity is more important than many other things in life. Emma has to do what is right and it is a scary thought. Read WHAT WOULD EMMA DO? It is one story that is going to stay with me for a long time. Reviewed by: Marta Morrison

WWED

It began when Emma kissed her friend Colin right in front of Santa at the Fort Wayne Mall. Since Colin was Joann's boyfriend and Joann was Emma's bff the kiss violated Girlfriend Rule #1. Senior year at Trinity Evangelical Secondary in very small town Wheaton becomes a difficult journey of self discovery for Emma. Cook's insights into Senior Year life, love, faith and friendship will be familiar to anyone who has ever experienced 'Senioritis'. Emma prays for a miracle cure. She learns that instead or trying to please and pacify those around her she must figure out what she wants for herself and how to feel good about herself as she tries to fulfill those wants.

What Would a Hilarious Nonconformist Stuck in a Gossipy, Hypocritical Small Town Do?

Emma Proctor is one of my favorite YA characters I've encountered in a while. She's independent and willing to speak up, seemingly after a lifetime of going along with the (boring) crowd. She writes letters to Jesus asking about how she should handle certain situations, namely, having gone from having a few close friends to being regarded by even her best friend as a freak. For most of this book, I admired Emma's commitment to what she wants (to get out of Wheaton, Indiana), though Cook lets us see that some of Emma's eagerness may be misguided (she will have to figure that out ultimately for herself). Emma's the kind of girl who's only applied to one school, so convinced is she she'll go there. She's sassy and opinionated and is willing to take some risks, like befriending Todd, the only Jew most people in her town have ever seen, and openly defying the school's head queen bee/mean girl, to stay true to herself, even going so far as to alienate the people closes to her. Emma's faith is something that is central to the premise of this book, though it's not ever fully tackled. Is she a believer? It's hard to tell, but she certainly makes her stance clear when facing the hypocrisy of her local church, in a reality TV spectacle that's not all that unlikely. As Emma struggles with how much to reveal about what she knows regarding the popular girls' drugtaking and fainting spells, she quickly finds she has very few people to turn to. Her new crush, her mom, and certainly, the man upstairs she keeps writing to, seem to be letting her down. This was a fun book with a heroine who's a witty non-conformist, who is constantly searching for answers, and only sometimes getting them. Cook expertly skewers small-town life and small-minded thinking, while also letting the reader in on the fact that, in her own way, Emma has a bit of a chip on her shoulder, too. Definitely the kind of book I'd love to see continued in a sequel, and a welcome book where a girl deals with boys and relationships, but they aren't the only things she's dealing with.

Fun Read

Emma Proctor is a high school senior in "Nowhere, Middle America", as she calls it, and she hates it. Her goal in life is to get a track scholarship to an out of town college and a one way ticket out of Wheaton. Things seem to be going according to plan until something starts happening to the popular girls at TES, the private school she attends. Now, Emma doesn't know exactly what is going on but she does know how it started - and she knows people are lying. The only thing is, if she comes forward and tells what she knows, she could be kicked out of school and her dreams for the scholarship and life outside of Wheaton go down the tubes. How long will she be able to stand by and watch as one-by-one the "losers" of the school are plucked out and blamed for things she know they didn't do? Will she do the right thing or will she take the safe route to ensure her plans aren't jeopardized? Eileen Cook has created characters that are relatable and believable - she totally nailed teenage angst. What Would Emma Do? is a smart and funny book that had me laughing out loud. I couldn't put it down. I thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommend it to anyone looking for a fun, easy read - regardless of one's age.