First Daughter: White House Rules
Mitali Perkins
Dutton Juvenile
ISBN: 978-0-525-47951-2
Fiction, Young Adult
Reviewed by Candace Mahoney

Sameera Righton’s father has just been elected President, and she and her parents, along with her cousin Miranda and farm dog, Jingle, are all set for the adventure of moving into the White House in First Daughter: White House Rules.  There’s plenty to keep the cousins busy, from learning complicated dances, mixing with ambassadors’ families, and giving the White House a makeover, to trying to ditch the Secret Service, playing matchmaker, making new friends and reconnecting with old ones.  On top of it all, Sameera is falling for the charming Bobby Ghosh, whom she met during her father’s campaign.  But Sameera is Pakastani by birth and Bobby’s family is from India.  Will longstanding enmity between their cultures and the disapproval of Bobby’s family doom them to become a modern-day Romeo and Juliet?  Her life is a whirlwind of activity, but Sameera (or Sparrow as she’s also known) makes time to blog about it all.

Author Mitali Perkins has done a fantastic job of opening a window onto a young person’s life in the White House.  Sameera Righton is a fun, intelligent and compassionate girl who seems wise beyond her years, and I love that she is a well-adjusted teenager who has a good relationship with her parents rather than the stereotypical, angst-ridden teen who has become so cliché in contemporary literature.  In addition, I enjoyed the sprinkling of multi-cultural trivia throughout the book.  As a bonus, there’s even a website, http://www.sparrowblog.com,  where readers can visit and comment on Sparrow’s blog.  A lively book that deals with little travails as well as tackling some deeper, thought-provoking issues, this book definitely gets my vote!