Laurie Halse Anderson's Prom is about a school in Philadelphia called Carcaras High School. When the prom advisor/math teacher embezzles the students' money for prom a week before the Big Night, the prom committee, including Ashley Hannigan's best friend Natalia (incidentally, the Chair), must scramble to reorganize and recreate the whole event.
While all of Ashley's friends may be addicted to the prom madness, Ashley sees the event the way several cynical pundits do: a lot of money on an out-of-date evening from which the take-away is a bunch of awkward memories anyone can live without. Natalia, however, is obsessed. She always has the latest prom magazine in hand and she's the Prom Chair (which I can tell you takes effort). When the funds are stolen, Natalia begs Ashley to help. Ashley concedes to her friend but never anticipates that she might become the de facto chair. Low and behold, Natalia breaks her leg tripping down the stairs trying to break in her prom heels and gets stuck in a wheelchair -- the reigns pass to Ashley.
When I read this book, I was entertained by the parallels between Natalia's pink notebook and my computer to do lists and spreadsheets. Ashley inherits this notebook and cannot believe the to do lists Natalia had developed. She describes how it was overstimulating and overwhelming and scary. Anderson's portrayal of the responsibilities of the prom chair were impressively accurate. She really nailed it!
As far as prom advisors stealing the money and having to re-plan the prom within a week, well, that's a whole additional senior project. Natalia wandered through the halls essentially aimlessly and stunned for the first several hours after she found out. I'd probably come off like someone had hit me in the with a frying pan, too.
the prom chair
Citation: "Anderson, Laurie Halse. Prom. [New York]: Viking, 2005. Print."
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