Catalyst

Anderson, Laurie. Catalyst. New York: Vikings, 2002. 233 pages. (Fiction)

Meet Kate Malone- goddess of organization, daughter of widowed husband/minister, sister of Tony (the god of sloppiness), girlfriend of Mitch Pangborn (he’s going to Harvard) and oh yeah, did I mention she’s a strait-A student at Merriweather High applying for M.I.T.? Of course we can’t forget about the Litch family. Teri- a punk, she doesn’t want anyone in her life but her two year old son Mikey. One ordinary night Kate was going about her business when the Litch family showed up at her house, all because the Litch’s house burned to the ground. This all was very surprising to both Kate and the Litch’s. It was upsetting to them, especially for Kate, because Teri had to stay at Kate, her arch enemy, because Teri’s house burned to the ground.

After a while Kate’s whole life was going crazy with them staying there. Her grades went down, the relationship with her friends are going horribly and to top it all off she’s still waiting for the acceptation letter from M.I.T., if she doesn’t get in then all the work that she’s done for the past ten years will go down the drain!

Do you think that Kate will get into M.I.T.? Will Teri and her family finally get out of her house? Well I’m not going to tell you! You’ll have to read the book yourself. You can find it in the school library in the fiction section. Here are ten words on how I chose this book “People change over time depending on what people they meet.” Why did I choose this? Kate used to be a smart girl, was almost perfect and always helped with everything whenever she could. But now that she’s met Teri, she realized that Teri has shown her what it’s like to be free and to just do your own thing.

Reviewed by Jodancer6696