This book is about a young girl name Maybelline Chestnut. She has a pageant winning mom who wants her to be exactly like she was. But Maybelline only wants to find her father all she knows about him is that he lives in Los Angeles. She goes on a journey to find him with her best friend. Overall this is funny book with a serious tone of voice. A realistic fiction that teaches you not to get discouraged..I liked it. ( )

Reviewed by Sally Kruger aka "Readingjunky" for TeensReadToo.com

ABSOLUTELY MAYBE by Lisa Yee is due out in February 2009. It is her first YA/teen novel - and readers will not want to miss it.

The main character is Maybelline, "Maybe" to her friends. She is currently living above her mother's Charm School. She is surrounded by glamour and future pageant hopefuls, but she feels anything but glamorous. Depending on the day, Maybe's hair color might be red, green, or blue, thanks to endless boxes of unsweetened jello. Her baggy black T-shirts, goth eyeliner, and dark lipstick have her mother frantic. That is, when her mother isn't busy trawling for her next husband.

Maybe's best friends, Ted and Hollywood, are the only things that keep her going. Their support helps her tolerate her mother's boyfriends-turned-step-fathers, until the most recent, Jake, makes an attempt to turn Maybe into more than an innocent step-daughter. When her mother sides with her pervert husband-to-be, Maybe decides it is time to follow through on her lifelong dream to find her mysterious biological father.

Ted and Hollywood join in the adventure as they head to L.A. in search of all their dreams.

Their arrival in California is followed by terrific opportunities for Ted and Hollywood, but not so much for Maybe. After weeks of living homeless, she finally searches out her mother's husband #2/#4, the only one who made Maybe feel anyone ever cared for her. At least now she has a place to call home while she continues her search for the father she never knew.

Yee's characters draw readers right into their lives. You'll find something to like about all of them, and they'll make you anxious to turn to the next page and sad when you arrive at the last one. There are humorous escapades mixed with sensitive, sentimental scenes as Maybe's story is revealed.

I can only hope that Maybe returns someday to let readers know about the next chapter in her awesome life. ( )

While there were bits and places where I was a little irritated or just bored with the main character, Maybe (short for "Maybelline", as named by her beauty pageant star mother) and her friends, overall this was a really good read. The twists and turns took the book to places that I didn't expect, without becoming cheesy or disjointed in the process. And unlike a lot of YA books, this is one where you don't only see the teen growing and changing across the book, but the adults are growing up as well.

Definitely a great pick for libraries, schools, and mother/daughter book clubs. :) ( )

Horn Book (March/April, 2009) Florida high school junior Maybe (short for Maybelline, her mother's favorite mascara) runs away to California to search for her birth father. She has many reasons to leave -- she keeps getting beaten up by the popular girls who attend her mother's charm school; her serial-bride mom is getting married for the seventh time. Oh -- and her mother's fiance, Jake, attempts to rape her, and her mother thinks Maybe lured Jake into bed. This plot turn comes as a surprise in what had until then been more of a comic novel, but the incident adds intensity to Maybe's search for her father. The rest of the book continues in a much lighter vein and ends on a happy, wacky note, with characters providing a lot of the humor (as, for instance, Maybe's friend Ted: a celebrity-crazed Thai adoptee sweetly devoted to his adoptive family, he becomes similarly devoted to the aging movie goddess for whom he works). Maybe's search takes her to unexpected places, and readers will absolutely enjoy the ride. Horn Book starred (July, 2009) Maybe runs away to California in search of her birth father; she has many reasons to leave (e.g., her serial-bride mother's fiance's attempt to rape her). The book continues in a much lighter vein and ends on a happy, wacky note, with well-drawn characters providing much of the humor. Maybe's search takes her to unexpected places, and readers will enjoy the ride. ( )

Mabelline had a father once, she knows that much. Her mother never explained anything except when she was under the influence, even then it was only one or two things. Maybe’s mother, Chessy, had a ‘fling’ with a talent searcher years back and now she lives with Maybe in the apartment above her charm school. Charming, isn’t it? After living with six different stepfathers, Maybe wants to meet her biological father. With only a picture and a first name as clues, Maybe sets off for Los Angeles with her two buds to find her dad. While both of her friends are off having the time of their lives, all Maybe has is a bag of clothes, a street corner, and one mischievous homeless woman who is convinced she’s Audrey Hepburn.

While an unrealistic storyline can be refreshing, it made Absolutely Maybe dull and forgettable. I did not enjoy any of the characters. Some parts of the book were sweet, I’d have to give it that, but it was usually ruined by Maybe’s inane thoughts or fast actions. Maybe was a shallow main character that was trying to get portrayed as an unaware, innocent teenager. The writing was a little random and stayed inside the lines. I loved how the chapters were short for a quick run through but they ended abruptly and lacked depth. I still don’t know who Maybe was as a person. There was no moral or lesson and Maybe hadn’t grown at all throughout the book. I believe this read is a waste of time.

Contains:

*homosexuality
*sexual references
*attempted rape ( )