The Amanda Project

Amanda Valentino and Melissa Kantor
HarperTeen (2010)
ISBN 9780061742132
Reviewed by Avni Gupta (age 17) for Reader Views (2/11)

When I received “The Amanda Project,” I was a little apprehensive about reading it, because I had read some mixed reviews about it. After just staring at it for a little while, and let me tell you that that cover really is something to stare at, I decided to ignore all of the reviews that I had read and get to reading it myself. I mean, who else likes all the same things that I like? I can honestly say that “The Amanda Project” is one of the best books that I have read in a really long time.

This book starts out with Callie, Hal, and Nia - three very different people - being called into the vice principal’s office after his car has been vandalized. (This book is told entirely from Callie’s perspective.) Vice Principal Thornhill suspects that the perpetrator of the vandalism is Amanda Valentino, and he believes that Callie, Hal, and Nia were her accomplices. Callie never thought that Amanda had any friends other than her. The weird thing is that Amanda lead Hal and Nia to believe the exact same thing! Callie’s really pissed at Amanda now. Not only did Amanda get her in trouble, she also led Callie to believe that she was the only one who Amanda was friends with! Callie needs to talk to Amanda, except she can’t. Amanda’s gone missing. Now, it’s up to Callie, Nia, and Hal to find Amanda before something happens to her.

In the book, all of the characters are freshman in high school. Personally though, while reading I didn’t think of them as freshmen. I thought of them more as juniors or seniors. Maybe my judgment was slightly clouded, because I am an upperclassman, but I doubt it. No matter how old these kids seems/are, this book is really amazing! The version that I got is the newer version, with a completely different cover, and this new cover really created a huge difference for me. I had seen the older version of “The Amanda Project” on book store shelves many times, but I had not picked it up, because I was never really drawn to the bright pink cover. This newer version seems more reader friendly, because it is not encased in such a garish color. This cover is softer, with a girl kind of fading into a brick wall as the main focal point. Another thing that I really liked about this book was the little designs that were on the bottom corners of some of the pages. It made looking at the book, and reading it, so much better!

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