Title: Ten Things We Did (and Probably Shouldn’t Have)
Author: Sarah Mlynowski
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication Date: June 7^th, 2011
Classification: Contemporary YA
Challenge: 2012 Goodreads Reading Challenge 13/70

Summary from Goodreads: 2 girls + 3 guys + 1 house parents = 10 things April and her friends did that they (definitely, maybe, probably) shouldn’t have.

If given the opportunity, what sixteen-year-old wouldn’t jump at the chance to move in with a friend and live parent-free? Although maybe “opportunity” isn’t the right word, since April had to tell her dad a tiny little untruth to make it happen (see #1: “Lied to Our Parents”). But she and her housemate Vi are totally responsible and able to take care of themselves. How they ended up “Skipping School” (#3), “Throwing a Crazy Party” (#8), “Buying a Hot Tub” (#4), and, um, “Harboring a Fugitive” (#7) at all is kind of a mystery to them.

In this hilarious and bittersweet tale, Sarah Mlynowski mines the heart and mind of a girl on her own for the first time. To get through the year, April will have to juggle a love triangle, learn to do her own laundry, and accept that her carefully constructed world just might be falling apart . . . one thing-she-shouldn’t-have-done at a time.

My Thoughts

“I bolted awake. A siren.”

Ten Things We Did didn’t start right at the beginning of the story. Instead it started three months into the story and gave a taste of all the craziness that will happen. This helped me get into the book quickly because it had me wondering how the story progressed to get to this point in the story and I also wanted to know what was going to happen after. Right from the beginning I knew April was going to get herself into some pretty crazy situations.

During Christmas break April’s father informs her that he has gotten a new job and that they are going to move to Cleveland, in 9 days! Come on of course people are going to be upset with such short notice.  April doesn’t want to go. She is a Junior in High school, all her friends are already here, and she thinks she is ready to take the next step with her boyfriend Noah. Moving is not in her plans so after a little persuading and a couple of “tiny” lies (lies told to both April’s dad and Vi’s mom) April and her friend Vi get April’s dad to stay with Vi and her mother for a semester. Of course Vi’s mother will also be gone during that time so the girls really have the whole house to themselves

April felt bad about lying to her dad. She really cared about his feelings and I really liked knowing that. She wanted to stay and be grown up but later she realizes she might not want all the things she thought she did. I found it really entertaining reading about her experiences with learning how to load a dishwasher, do the grocery shopping, and make dinner. It was just funny because there were so many things that April didn’t know how to do or wasn’t used to doing around the house.

For Vi these were the things she was used to. It was just her and her mom so she had more responsibilities (especially since her mom was gone a lot). A lot of the time I forgot that Vi was still in high school. Most of the time she seemed older than she really was but she isn’t really as grown up as she thinks she is. As much as they want to be older April and Vi both are still very much just teenagers.

I am trying to think of the best way to write this without giving too much away. I don’t want to say a lot about the 10 things that they did because it really just needs to be read. I can say that I laughed a lot while reading this book. The things that these two girls do and just the way that they interacted with each other and others was hilarious.

Besides April and Vi, Dean and Hudson had to be my two favorite characters. They helped April and Vi a lot and they were just great! Dean always had me cracking up and Hudson was really nice. He also was a bit of a mystery. There were all kinds of rumors of what he did for a job and it was interesting reading everyone’s theories. The whole book was just fast and really fun to read.

*This was also the very first book I read on my Nook! I know your probably thinking “that was random” but I just had to share