Review: Growing Pains: Kendra's Diaries by K.P. Smith

Book Description via Goodreads:

Ebook, 286 pages

May 25, 2011, Doin It Publishing

Growing Pains; Kendras Dairies is the first book in the series chronicling the journey of Kendra Foster from adolescence to adulthood.I aspire to encourage, entertain, and inspire young adults. Life has its ups and downs, its bumps and its bruises. But with perseverance, determination, and faith you can be all you were born to be. Never Give Up.

Source: Author (Thank you!)

My Thoughts:

Kendra was a typical teen with an average not-so-perfect life. She had things to be confident about and things to complain about. She was conscious about her looks. But unlike most typical tweens, Kendra was not boy crazy. She was more hardwired to pursue her dream. I liked this about her. She kept trying again and again. She lifted herself up and gave cheerleading another go.

I liked how the author weaved different kinds of relationships in the novel: Kendra’s relationship with her mom – how her mom somewhat burdened her daughter instead of fostering a close relationship with her; Kendra’s relationship with her dad – they were not close and it was strained because Kendra and her dad never talk about real, deep father-daughter stuff; and Kendra’s relationship with her younger sister, Patrice, – how Kendra anchored her sister, gave her comfort and gave her a sanctuary. The issues, the weight, complications and consequences of these relationships added pressure to Kendra.

From time to time, I want to get hooked on reality with realistic fiction like this. The years have passed but I think that girls still deal with the same problems especially nowadays when a perfect family life is rare. They would be able to relate what Kendra was going through. The only thing that I didn’t like about Growing Pains was how the dramatic, life-altering scenes were carried out. I felt that the scenes would’ve been better if they were done a bit differently – with more drama, more length, more focus on Kendra’s feelings and how they flickered from one to another, more focus on how her world shifted a little bit when something big happened. I wanted to see Kendra pause. I wanted to see more of Kendra’s soft, vulnerable and thoughtful side during these scenes.

Overall, Growing Pains is about a girl’s journey through everything that the world threw at her, towards maturity and towards her dreams. Growing Pains would appeal to preteens (tweens) and young teens but I think adults will appreciate this as well.

Rating: