Dating Games #1, The First Date, Melody Carlson

Melody Carlson is usually my top pick for teen writing. However, this one is not one of my favorites. Although my daughter who is a teen enjoyed it. The book is about girls who are previously not friends but who join together with the purpose of getting a date for a dance. In the end they all get their dates. However, this is not the approach I want my daughters to take nor would I want any of my 4 sons to get entangled with girls like these. I found this to be a little disappointing as Melody Carlson has previously written very good teen books that point girls to Christ and Christ-like behavior, ideas, and actions. This one seemed to make dating a game, to be taken lightly. They further had a very superficial attitudes that lacked any spiritual depth. Though this was not a book I would re-read I would not say it is the worst book a girl could pick up. As always Melody Carlson's books are clean and can be handed to a teen without the worry that they are going to read something with too much romance. Thanks to Revell for this review copy.