The Dish on Miranda Kenneally (Author Extraordinaire)

Miranda Kenneally is a prolific writer who really nails the teen experience. Her books are thought-provoking, entertaining, and riveting - and full of hot-topic issues that are great for discussion with your teen. Here's my scoop on this long-time favorite of mine.

• From Manchester, TN
• Went to school in Washington, DC
• Worked for the Department of State
• If you want to know more, check out her website.

• Her impressive body of work includes 8 books published in 11 years – a crazy-amazing feat in the writing world!
• All 8 books are set in the world of Hundred Oaks
• The books are companions, not a series
• All the books feature strong female main characters who blow stereotypes out of the water
• She asks bold questions through her characters and embraces the messiness of life and people

All Miranda Kenneally’s books are fantastic discussion starters and cover a variety of hot-topic issues. I’ve listed all of her books, including a short description and a list of the issues that come up in each.

This first book in the Hundred Oaks books is about Jordan Woods, the daughter of an NFL pro football player. Jordan quarterbacks for her high school football team and her Dad isn’t super happy about it. Up until now, she’s not really dated, so when she’s attracted to the new guy who shows up and makes the team – also as a quarterback – she’s faced with lots of emotions.

Issues in Catching Jordan:

• Athletic Pressure
• Dating relationships
• Dreams and Goals
• Friendship
• Future Plans
• Identity
• Parent/teen relationships
• Sexual activity
• Sexism

In the next book, Parker Shelton is a star student and softball player. Her life seems perfect until her mom leaves her dad for another woman, and she’s completely shunned at school and at their church. Acting out, she quits the softball team and starts dating (and messing around with) lots of boys. Because the last thing she wants people to think is that she’s like her mom. Her infatuation with the new softball coach – a young, just-graduated-from-college guy who used to go to her high school – isn’t helping matters.

Issues in Stealing Parker:

• Dating Relationships
• Friendship
• Identity
• Parent/teen relationships
• Sexual activity
• Sexual orientation
• Teacher/student relationships

In the third Hundred Oaks book, Kate Kelly is grappling with her faith and her identity. A self-described “good girl,” she’s spending the summer as a church camp counselor, and it’s not going as planned. She is very clearly a people-pleaser – she struggles a lot with wanting to make sure she doesn’t sound “mean” – and she’s terrified that the people around her will find out her terrible secret – that she helped her best friend get an abortion a few weeks ago. Over the course of the summer, she begins to see that what she thinks of herself matters most of all.

Issues in Things I Can’t Forget:

• Abortion
• Dating Relationships
• Faith
• Friendship
• Identity
• Parent/Teen Relationships
• Sexual Activity
• Teen Pregnancy

In Kenneally’s fourth book, Savannah Barrow tries to fit into a new community when her father moves them to Hundred Oaks at the beginning of her senior year. They moved so he could take a better job as the head racehorse trainer on the estate of a wealthy family. Savannah dreams of becoming a horse jockey, but her father is dead set against it. Throw in the teenaged son of the wealthy family, Savannah’s over-protective Dad, and all the drama of being the new girl and you have the story of a girl who must figure out who she is and what she wants.

Issues in Racing Savannah:

• Dating Relationships
• Gender Discrimination
• Identity
• Parent/Teen Relationships
• Socio-Economic Differences
• Stereotypes

In the next book, we meet Annie Winters, a teen who is training for a marathon – even though she HATES running. As we watch her train, we discover she’s doing it because her boyfriend, Kyle, can’t – because he recently died. And she feels responsible. As Annie runs with her training group, she works through her grief and guilt and figures out how to move on without Kyle, and step back into life. (Also, Jordan Woods shows up in this book as a coach at Hundred Oaks HS.)

Issues in Breathe, Annie, Breathe:

• Dating Relationships
• Forgiveness
• Grief and Loss
• Guilt
• Parent/Teen Relationships
• Perseverance

In the sixth Hundred Oaks book, Maya Henry gets to shadow country music star, Jesse Scott, for career day at school. (Maya is Sam Henry’s little sister, btw! He’s a main character in Catching Jordan.) They do not get off on the right foot, and Maya isn’t sure she can learn anything from the arrogant, jaded musician – especially since she hates country music. But as they spend time together, her dreams of becoming a professional start to flutter back to life.

Issues in Jesse’s Girl:

• Dating Relationships
• Dreams and Goals
• Friendship
• Future Plans
• Identity
• Teacher/Student Relationships

In this book, Kenneally introduces us to Taylor Lukens, the daughter of a Tennessee senator, whose life is falling apart. She’s been kicked out of a private school she adored, thrown off her soccer team, and lost her chance to be the valedictorian – all for something she didn’t do. As she bears the brunt of her parents’ disappointment and makes the transition to a public school, she has to figure out if lying for her boyfriend was worth it.

Issues in Defending Taylor:

• Academic Pressure
• Choices
• Friendship
• Identity
• Lying
• Parent/Teen Relationships
• Sacrifice
• Sibling Relationships
• Socio-Economic Differences
• Transition

In the final Hundred Oaks novel, Maggie King eats, breathes, sleeps and lives swimming. When she takes a break from Olympic qualification training to visit a college, she realizes all the “typical high school” things she’s missed out on. Now it’s game on as she tries to fit everything into her senior year, from juggling her new experiences, to the pressure to succeed in swimming, to her changing relationship with her best friend, Levi.  (Jordan Woods is in this one as a coach/teacher.)

Issues in Coming Up for Air:

• Athletic Pressure
• Competition
• Dating Relationships
• Friendship
• Identity
• Rivalry
• Sexual Activity