Don't Stop Now by Julie Halpern OPTIONAL

Halpern, Julie Don't Stop Now, 224 pags. Feiwel and Friends, June 2011. Language--PG-13 (30 swears); Sexual Content--PG-13; Violence--PG.

Lillian's sort-of friend, Penny, fakes her own kidnapping on the day after high school graduation. Lil and her best friend Josh decide to take the situation into their own hands, and instead of telling the police, decide to take a road trip to Washington to figure out what she was thinking. Most of the book is from Lil's POV, but Penny does have a few paragraphs every couple of chapters to give background and perspective.

I usually really enjoy "road trip" books. But this one, I didn't get. Periodically I'd ask myself, "What is the point of this novel?" and I never had an answer. By the end of the story I decided it was Lil and Josh's relationship, since that is the question asked on the cover. But even at the last page, where their relationship stands is still up in the air, so again, I had to ask, "What was the point?" And going after Penny seemed a really flimsy excuse behind the road trip. I found it a rather pointless book.

HS--OPTIONAL. Rebekah, youth services librarian