All-American Girl is the story of Samantha Madison, a student in Washington D.C., who is nothing like her popular sister: she has red wiry hair, dyed all her clothes black, and is being forced by her parents to take an art classes. All that changes when she saves the life of the the president.
Then she is suddenly forced into the public eye . . . and the into the realization that the president's son may like her.
I really liked this book - it's an interesting storyline with characters that I cared about. There are a lot of funny, interesting details from the names of the presidents' children engraved on a windowsill, to the French lady who sells her delicious baguettes. I also really loved the descriptions of the art lessons and how they tie in with truths about Samantha herself.
A good read. ( )

I had my reservations about teh first book, so it took me forever to actually pick it up. but I liked it. This one was an almost 'Why not' kind of pick, but I found it disappointing. It seemed like such an issue book. And then there was all this random stuff about movies. Uh... don't care. It felt weird, and didn't add anything to the story. The story itself was one giant angst-fest, then when the conflict finally gets resolved, it's very much in a 'yeah, it's okay now' sort of way. Very disappointing. ( )

I liked this book because it talked about middle child who was not recognize until she saved the US president life, and the story begins from there were she get famous at school. ( )

I've never read Meg Cabot before. I know, I know! I kinda remember reading part of The Princess Diaries, but I didn't like it enough to continue and I never tried anything else. Until now, obviously.

I was pleasantly surprised with this book! Yeah, the situation is impossible but it's fun, and cute, and it's got some good thoughts hidden in amongst the silliness. Samantha unfortunately annoys me a little too much, but it's more in a stupid-little-sister way than this-character-is-fake way. If that makes sense. I still rooted for her and David (the President's son) to get together, and for Sam to change into a better, less irritating person. The other characters don't really stand out as much, even Lucy and Jack, but honestly, when I was reading the book I didn't really care.

The writing was good, for what the book was, and though some of the pop culture references are now horribly dated (poor Heath Ledger, for instance, makes a cameo as one character's dream man) it still holds up pretty well. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a fluffy, quick read. ( )

Booklist, 10/1/2002, Vol. 99 Issue 3, p311 ( )