Teenreads.com -- BETTER THAN YESTERDAY by Robyn Schneider

BETTER THAN YESTERDAY
Robyn Schneider
Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Fiction
Hardcover: 0385733453
Paperback: 9780385733465
240 pages

First of all, I must say that I have loved anything having to do with boarding school since I could read. I never attended but always wanted to. So I knew I would like Robyn Schneider's debut novel, BETTER THAN YESTERDAY, if for no other reason than that.

Luckily, the book has more redeeming qualities than its setting (Hilliard Preparatory School is a co-ed boarding school currently housing students and a young new creative writing teacher for its summer session). BETTER THAN YESTERDAY has two stars who co-narrate, chapter by chapter: Skylar Banks and Charley Morton.

Skylar is a girl with quite the reputation --- during freshman year, she hooked up with Kyle Dorsey, a senior and varsity athlete. They were caught in his room once (oh, the thrill of boarding school), but Skylar luckily kept that a secret from Kyle's brother, her good friend Blake. Charley is a straight-A student whose parents are pressuring and pushing him all the way to Harvard. But Charley doesn't want to follow in his father's footsteps and become a doctor; he would rather study music.

A surprise to everyone on campus, Skylar looks like she is already set to beat out Charley (who is madly in love with her) as valedictorian for their upcoming senior year. Blake Dorsey has returned to Hilliard after a two-year absence. All too soon, he has disappeared, and it's up to Charley, Skylar and Marissa (Skylar's roommate) to figure out why and bring him back.

It is not necessarily the plot that makes BETTER THAN YESTERDAY stand out. Rather, it's the fact that Robyn Schneider, who is just 20, actually sounds like a teen, so the book is realistic and readable. She is also insanely clever and witty --- each chapter heading comes from a famous title or quotation, such as "Of Mice and Mensa Members" and "Partying Is Such Sweet Sorrow," and every bit of slang, melodrama and smart-kid insults is right on. There's only one dull point in the entire novel --- Blake's email to his brother seems forced and not natural, at least not based on any of the emails I've seen written to or from a teenager.

It takes only a few pages to get hooked on this book. You may even finish it in one day, as I did. Both the voices of Charley and Skylar, its narrators, are completely enjoyable, and the secondary characters (a roommate, a teacher, a brother, random drunken Columbia students) make it feel as if you are running right alongside Charley, Skylar and Marissa for their New York City adventure.

BETTER THAN YESTERDAY is a solid, enjoyable first novel. More significantly, it shows that there are even greater things to come from the sharp Robyn Schneider.

--- Reviewed by Hannah Gomez

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