Ten Things We Did (and Probably Shouldn’t Have) is a sometimes amusing, sometimes very serious novel. This realistic-fiction book is intended for an audience of ages fourteen and up. Sarah Mlynowski did a very good job of interpreting actual issues of an average teenager (except the part of buying a hot tub and living without parental supervision for half of the school year!) Mlynowski was born in Montreal, Canada, and then moved to Toronto after graduating from McGill University with a degree in English literature. She published multiple writings for adults as well as teens. Now, she lives in New York City with her husband and daughter. Her inspiration to write Ten Things We Did (and Probably Shouldn’t Have) actually came from her life as a teenager. Sarah says, “When I was seventeen, I moved into the basement of a friend’s and slept on a futon.”
April, the book’s main character, is a smart, sweet, and sometimes naïve girl, who is a junior in high school, about to go on Christmas break. Her mother lives in Paris with her younger brother Matthew, so she lives with her father, who is remarried to a clean-freak named Penny. They both want to move to Cleveland. April won’t have this, so she creates a plan to move in with her friend, Vi, an independent, wild spirit who is the bad girl of the story, who can have the personality of a good girl at times, and tries just as hard as April does to make it through the rest of the year. They are supposed to be living with Vi’s mom. There’s just one catch- Vi’s mother won’t be there any of the time. Marissa is April’s bubbly and dependable friend. Noah is April’s boyfriend, and one of those characters that you have doubts about. He begins to act a little strange in the middle of the book, and April starts to get suspicious. There are other characters in the book, but I can’t mention them, unless you want me to spoil the ending. Throughout the entire story, April must learn how to do laundry, go grocery shopping, and deal with intense relationship problems. Obviously the not-so-fun parts of being an adult. I loved how the plot of the story is on a very mature theme that everybody will have to go through at some point- even if you’re not a seventeen year old girl who refuses to move to Ohio with your father and his OCD wife. Sarah Mlynowski did an excellent job on using appropriate tone and language in the book. There a few curse words, but not too much to worry about. She did an outstanding job at writing as if she were a teenage girl in this type of situation.

I highly recommend reading this book. If you’re a teenager who wants to move out of their parents’ house, reading this will either change your mind or give you more reasons to hit the road! I suggest that young adults would be a best fit for this book. I have always enjoyed reading teen-fiction books, especially ones with as much grace and humor as this piece of literature. Teen girls will definitely enjoy this book more than any other group of people, but it’s good for any audience, really. I don’t regret reading this at all!