The Great Date Debate.
Stephanie is sooo excited! Kyle Sullivan just asked her out. All the girls think Kyle is the coolest guy around — and so does Stephanie. But Kyle thinks that boys make the dating rules. And he's telling Stephanie exactly what, where and how their date will go. Kyle's message is loud and clear: This date is his way — or no way!
Stephanie just doesn't agree and she's got ten reasons why. Should she tell Kyle? Or will she lose him and not be the envy of every girl in school?
I have read this book, and personally, I cannot find enough good and positive things to say about it. I like how Stephanie eventually decided to stand up and take charge the way she did in the debate between girls and guys, especially when it came to the dating rules. Plus, I like how Kyle eventually realized Stephanie was right, and apologized for deciding how their date would go instead of leaving it up to Stephanie (even though she does break up with him when he falls back into that habit again).
(By the way, I recall reading the book Mom, Can I Have That? by Janet Bodnar a few months ago, and a certain phrase caught my eye as I was reading it and has stayed with me ever since. It was one of the rules of dating etiquette: "He or she who does the asking should pick up the tab." And that is something I cannot agree more with, along with the fact that whether a boy or a girl does the asking doesn't matter in the least, either. Of course, one exception to that rule might be an inexpensive event, such as the prom.)
Plus, I could not help but smile when I came to the scene where Stephanie said her cousin Alex Katsopolis had used a game of hide and seek to teach her a lesson about rules. Danny remarked that it sounded like Alex taught her a lesson in when to bend rules. "Or break them," Stephanie says, and then admits she lost sight of the fact that a date is supposed to be fun; Danny replies he is proud of her for learning that lesson, too. Good for her.
Finally, there is a beautiful "sister, sister" moment at the end of the book when Michelle admits she had broken the rule Danny made about paying for movies out of their allowance by spending hers on bubble gum. Stephanie nicely offers to make it her treat when taking Michelle to see the film The Mermaid's Garden on Saturday. "Because as you just proved, some rules are made to be broken."
And I cannot agree more there, of course. Sometimes, some rules are meant to be broken; one good example of that is the writing rules. For example, when writing a vampire story, the rules about vampires can be changed, such as whether or not they can eat human food, or if they can drink something besides blood, such as water or soda. After all, there can be many variations of a vampire story, and they don't all have to "stick to the status quo" of what a vampire story is supposed to be. Plus, when a person cooks up a new vampire story, they are making their own (and sometimes original) worlds and rules about vampires in that way.
Finally, I give this book five stars, and I highly recommend it to anyone who is a fan of Full House, too. 😎
