Guest Blogger YA Novelist Barbara Ehrentreu

Today, novelist Barbara Ehrentreu, author of If I Could Be Like Jennifer Taylor, joins us as part of the Summer Teen Reading Party. She chose to interview the main character from her novel, a teen girl struggling with some tough, realistic problems.


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LATE ADDITION! NEWS FLASH! Barabara Ehrentreu has just agreed to do a giveaway to one lucky commenter! Post a comment at the end of this post, and you'll have a chance to win If I Could Be Like Jennifer Taylor.

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An Interview with Jennifer Taylor from If I Could Be Like Jennifer Taylor

Welcome, Jennifer. I know you have a very busy schedule and I’m so glad you could take a few minutes to talk with us.

Jennifer: Well, I thought it was important I get my side of the story out there. After all, Carolyn has been going on all these blogs and bad mouthing me. So I figured, well, we figured, that is Brad and I figured I better get on here and tell my story. Who is Brad, you ask? He’s my boyfriend and he’s the number one quarterback on the Mill Valley Vikings. 

That’s my school’s team. I’m a freshman at Mill Valley High School and if everything goes right I’ll be in the Olympics in a couple of years. My coach says I have a really good chance if I continue to practice. I’m the best on the team, but I have a problem.

What is your problem, Jennifer?

Jennifer: It’s hard to explain, but it started when I really wanted to be in the Olympics. I had to be a certain weight to stay on the team. I mean the coach weighed us every day and if we gained any weight he gave us a few days to lose it or he would make us sit on the bench during practice. So, in middle school I liked to eat and I kept gaining weight. One day I had enough of not practicing so I decided to stop eating. Oh that worked great! I got all mean and yes, that is when I started bothering poor little Carolyn about her stupid breathing. That day I started it was a big joke, but then it was so much fun to keep bothering her. She’s like a scared little mouse. Maura, she’s my best friend, and I had so much fun deciding where I should get her next. Meanwhile, I got so hungry I would stuff myself with food and feel so guilty. One night I just got rid of it, you know how. After that it was easy and I stayed at the right weight, except sometimes I stop eating again. No one knows about this, not even Maura or my parents. No one from my school will see this, right?

No, of course not. 

Why did you decide to help Carolyn?

Jennifer: Now I can’t really say why I did and maybe it’s best if I don’t tell you about that.   

Maybe the girl just got to me. How pathetically she dressed and how she only hung out with her two friends Becky and Janie. I mean when we did the food survey she only knew those two. But it might be something else and you know I would rather not say, it’s kind of private.

Do you think you are a “mean girl”?

Jennifer: If you go to Mill Valley High School you will see I am the most popular girl in the whole school. I have the best looking guy as a boy friend and people really like me. Is that the profile of a mean girl? Maybe if I were Carolyn Samuels I might think of myself as a mean girl. I have been pretty mean to her. But she really deserved it with her dweeby friends and her breathing problem. So, no, I don’t think of myself as a “mean girl’. 

Jennifer, it has been very interesting talking with you and I’m glad you got to tell your side of the story. 

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You can buy If I Could Be Like Jennifer Taylor at the Muse Bookstore, at Amazon, and at Barnes & Noble.

You can visit Barbara Ehrentreu at her blog and on Facebook.