Identity Discovery

This book was a lot easier to read than the first one, but I think that is partly because I had a better idea of what I was reading. It is once again written in diary format. There still aren't any dates, but I didn't feel like I needed them as much this time. This diary covers the last half of Melissa's freshman year and a good part of her summer vacation. Since life has been really busy, yet uneventful, she writes every couple of days instead of every day. Some entries in the diary are summations of an entire week. This actually makes it a little easier to read because each entry feels more like a chapter in a regular book.

What I found interesting is that her life has changed in a couple of months rather dramatically. She had high hopes and dreams of dating Brian in book one and rekindling her friendship with Jess, but in this book she seems perfectly content to not date at all. That's not to say that she isn't day dreaming about boys, particularly a senior she feels is out of her league, but she isn't actively trying to get a boyfriend this time. She also doesn't write as much about her clothes and makeup like in the first one. You get a feeling of a girl learning to prioritize and maturing. I think that this happens quickly because of the new baby in her family. She is the oldest of now five kids and the youngest, Max, was born with Down Syndrome. This is a touchy subject for me since I have a family member with mental retardation, ADHD, and a learning disability. I was very happy with how Bethany Lopez wrote about Max and how his siblings reacted to him. The book even ends with the entire family doing a walk for Down Syndrome. I was rather touched by this development and happy to see Melissa learning to be more adult about the events in her life.

Read more reviews at Identity Discovery Blog.