The book Zen and the Art of Faking It by Jordan Sonneblick is a very interesting book about a boy, San Lee, who moves to a new school and creates a unique profile for himself as a Zen master. He makes friends with Emily Long, who goes by the name Woody. They are working on a project together and San begins to like her. 

San reads many books about Zeen and studies them intensely. He begins to use many quotes that relate to Zen. San becomes very popular in his new school and treasures his “Zen master” profile. However, San is living a lie, he is just a normal boy and not a Zen master! He knows that according to Zen it is not moral to lie. Unfortunately, he has a rough home life with no dad and a mom that works really hard who recently begins to believe that San is not appreciative enough. Eventually, his reputation gets destroyed because everyone finds out that his persona is a lie.

I personally enjoyed this book because it talks about the struggle for teenagers, especially new kids, to fit in. It also shows what some kids have to go through that others may not know about.  This book shows that some teenagers may go through a lot in their home life and so they care a lot about their reputation in school. This also shows that when kids get bullied or made fun of it can really affect how they act.

I recommend reading this book because it is an amazing book about what really happens in teenagers lives. I also would recommend any books written by Jordan Sonnenblick because they discuss what really happens in the life of teenagers and are generally very interesting.

Bailey Marranca

Bailey is a senior at Sweet Home High School and was previously involved with the Panther Press at Sweet Home Middle School. She was a writer for one year and an editor of the Life & Arts section for two. This year Bailey plans on contributing reviews and other insight about Life & Arts within Sweet Home High School.