806 by Cynthia Weil hits bookstores March 13, 2018
K.T. is a teenage singer songwriter who doesn’t know her real dad. Her mom is a train wreck with men, with one relationship after another ending or beginning.
But when K.T. insists that her mom let her meet her biological father, K.T. discovers she was conceived with the help of a sperm donor.
Insistent that she find out who her real dad is, K.T. goes online to a Website for people looking to meet their donor fathers.
What she finds is there are two other teens also looking for Donor 806 -- and they’re two boys she doesn’t much like from her suburban St. Louis high school, the jocky jerk Jesse Worthington and the nerdy magician Gabe Btcherelli.
How could she be related to THEM?
But they’re all in the same boat -- or jeep, as it turns out, as they wind up on a cross-country road trip in hopes of meeting their biological father.
There are plenty of disappointments and revelations along the way, but the characters are all likable in their own way and we wind up rooting for all of them.
Author Cynthia Weil’s plotting gets campy at times, and there are occasions where it’s tough to suspend your disbelief.
Notably, early in the book the kids find themselves out of gas at the Cadillac Ranch near Amarillo, Texas.
Readers who haven’t been there won’t notice anything, but those who have might know that civilization -- including a shopping mall and gas stations -- is within walking distance.
There are a few minor flaws, but overall this is an enjoyable read that many teens will enjoy.
And it’s no surprise that the book’s protagonist and narrator is a singer songwriter given the author’s history.
Whether you know it or not, you know Cynthia Weil’s work. Before writing YA fiction, Weil wrote song lyrics on some classic songs, including “You’ve Lost that Loving Feeling” and “Somewhere Out There,” which won her an academy award. She’s in the songwriter’s Hall of Fame and Rock & Roll hall of fame.
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