The Party

18 Pine St. #2

by Stacie Johnson, Walter Dean Myers

Excited about securing the best rap group in town for the upcoming senior class party, Jennifer Wilson decides to hold the party at her house while her parents are away.

Genres: Young Adult

160 pages, Mass Market Paperback

Published August 1, 1992

About the author

Pseudonym of Walter Dean Myers

Reviews

[Tiffany Spencer · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Party
The Plot: Since Jennifer was out of town visiting her father, she didn’t hear the 411 about the hot party dance-a-thon the seniors had over the weekend. Tasha says they can use a party and then later Jennifer shows up at the Gordan’s with just that on her mind. The next day tho, Jennifer is in a BAD mood because her mom is going out of town and won’t let her get a credit card that will give her cash back. (Jennifer is all over the place) Bu t then so is Sarah. In the last book, she was all about Dave. But now he’s distracted and her attention has turned to Billy Turner. In Social Studies class, she tries to get next to him by trying to get a debate topic she thinks he’ll pick ( Con-Steroids in Athletics) (Billy is the school’s hottest basketball star). But instead, he’s put on the team with Tash and their topic is Pro: Birth Control. Tasha and Sarah slightly seem to “make up” in class. The day before Sarah was pissed that Tasha made a comment about their house being a prison (Sarah I’m learning in this one is a little uptight). She tries to talk to Billy after class but he walks off. At lunch, Jennifer starts ranting that they can’t let “them” tell them what to do and they should get Def Cru 4 (a new local rap and reggae group) to perform at the party.

At dinner, Tasha again accuses Sarah of not liking the idea of the party because it wasn’t hers. Sarah admits she’s not feeling the party that much. It just feels like Jennifer is trying to prove something. But she doesn’t really know what her problem is with it. Her Dad says just let it happen and this annoys her more. Mrs. Essie tho has another chance to be in a commercial. (The pilot from the last book didn’t pan). Sarah waits for Bill with Cindy after his (and Dave’s) practice (Apparently Dave has cooled off since they went out and his mind is just on basketball and getting a scholarship). Sarah is waiting to “study social studies” with Billy. But when she presses him about why he didn’t choose her topic, why the coach is coming down on him, and why he’s distracted, he ends up telling her this story about “his friends” girlfriend is pressing him about getting married. Sarah just says don’t stress out about it and “his friend” will be ok. Bill kisses Sarah and she goes into meltdown. Later, April calls about the concert. She’s white and doesn’t understand Def Cru 4’s music. Sarah tells her she’s not going to the concert, but she should go. April sikes herself up to go and Sarah thinks how much she admires that April will try new things.

Jennifer is told by the vice principal the juniors can’t have the party because they already have an event scheduled (a bowl-a-thon) so Jennifer says that they can have the party at her house because her mother is always out of town. Her Dad is giving her money to like his new (jail bate age) girlfriend. Jennifer asks her mother to go to a concert and because she mouths off at her about her math grade she says no. Jennifer tells Sarah her mother gives her what she needs but not what she doesn’t need a relationship (uh what? I think Jennifer got that backward). Sarah lets Jennifer pressure her into helping with the party. Even Mrs. Bender the (English teacher) gets into the excitement while teaching Hamlet and the importance of rhythm by allowing the share (and assign them to bring in) some of Def Cru 4’s lyrics.

April ends up going to the concert with Steve but is too caught up with the foul language and provocative dancing. Jennifer finds a way to speak with the lead singer Delight and get him to come to her party and maybe do a song. Sarah and Tasha clash over the fact that Jennifer didn’t tell either of her parents. Jennifer again has a meltdown about rules and Tasha tells her she’s on her side. Sarah isn’t sure she is. Dave wants to do a controversial set of lyrics in class, but when Sarah shows concern he cuts her off. She tries to confront him but he brushes her off. Then Billy comes up to her and she finds out he told Dave he and Sarah and Dave and whoever could double date to Jennifer’s party. By the end of class Sarah has made up her mind (for the second time) it’s Dave she’s into.

Billy brings his girlfriend Linda to talk to Sarah. She finds out that he’d been dating her a long time and then he dumped her because he said he was interested in someone else. Linda says she loves Billy but she felt like he used her (got what he wanted then dipped). She also worries that if he goes to college he’ll find someone with more education than her (She goes to Hamilton the special school). Sarah corrects her that she’s not with Billy and if he can’t see who great she is later for him. Afterward, she tells Billy he’s an ass. When she gets home she and Tasha argue again over the party and Tasha brings up her playing Billy and Dave. She threatens to take one of em (or both). Sarah won’t give her an answer to which one she wants. So later, Sarah sees Tasha outside kissing Dave. Early in the morning, she calls Dave and pleads to see him. He tries to explain about Tasha and she stops him. It doesn’t say they slept together but she does end up staying until dawn and then creeping back home.

The night of the party comes. As it goes on, Def Cru 4 shows up and it gets even more turnt up. There’s drinking, (probably weed smoking), lewd dancing, (Think a lil more wilder than the movie House Party). Since Tasha promised Mr. Gordan they’d live before it got out of control, Sarah calls her Dad. The police show up and shut the party down. Delight tells Jennifer (before being hauled away) her party sucked. Sarah and Tasha get a lecture. The next day Sarah’s mother apologizes for not listening to her when she tried to tell her she wasn’t comfortable with the party. She then goes to Jennifer’s house only to find she’s expecting her Dad. But he seems his young chick instead who tries to talk to Jennifer but Jennifer wants no parts of bonding So Shawnee just accesses the damage and leaves to report it back. Sarah calls the crew to help clean up. They all get jobs for one day to give Mrs. Wilson 500.00 for the damages. Allison and her friend have this exhibit for Earth Day and they bring a wad of gum and say everyone needs to work on gum control, They win a prize and get on tv. Kwame doesn’t (whose also entered).At the end of the book, April wants to start a rap group and call herself “Light Ice” and Kwame wants to work on world peace.


My Thoughts: In a nutshell, this was House Party-the book. Two friends. One slightly cautious (Sarah-Kid) and the wild, carefree one (Jennifer-Play), There was a DJ (Kwame-Bilal). There was a rap group (Kid N Play) who performed. There was A LOT of damage to the house. There was even drama between Sarah and Tasha over the boys just like there was drama between Sidney and Sharane.

I just felt a lot of these characters were confused. Jennifer was confused. Some of the things she said didn’t make sense. She said she wanted her mother NOT to give her what she needed -a relationship-. She argued so hard to have the cash card. Then she tells Sarah I don’t really need it. Even her last explanation didn’t make sense of having thrown the party because it was her way of being more “adult”. I guess in the eyes of a teenager it *could* be looked at as being in control by making an independent decision, but it really *wasn’t* a very mature decision to invite RAPPERS over. What did you think was gonna happen?! And then who in the world has the kind of connections where they can just call up a rap group from their hotel room?! First of all they shouldn’t have been that easy to track down and second to tell someone they’re party sucks Def Cru 4 sucks because they don’t have any SECURITY PEOPLE.

Sarah was CONFUSED! When I first read this I wrote that Sarah wasn’t cool for trying to play Dave. On this read, I really was about to forgive her because I KNOW. I know how guys will be into you and then for no damn reason AT ALL will just drop their attention for some unknown reason. So I thought GOOD! That’s what Dave gets. But then when she does decide for the SECOND time he’s the one, what does she do? Give him some BS that all boiled down to I don’t know what I want. I need to find out who I am! REALLY SARAH? And I’m kinda over Sarah being a player. And it doesn’t end HERE either. In an upcoming book, she also dates Jose! If this was the case then maybe you should have dated Dave AFTER you got all that playing out of your system. If I were Dave I’d tell her when you figure it out call me, but until then don’t call me in the middle of the night upset. Cause it works BOTH WAYS. Not that I felt like he should have kissed Tasha. So NO! Dave isn’t off the hook.
Then what’s up with Tasha. Sarah was.. I can’t exactly say *wrong* but you don’t kiss your RELATIVES love interest. Even if you DO feel like they need to work it out. Everyone excuses Tasha. Oh, she’s had it rough. She’s getting adjusted. Be patient with her. But Tasha sometimes needs to stay in her lane. She thinks just because the guys have made her feel like she’s the shit at Murphy, she can *do* and *say* anything she wants. And I wouldn’t be surprised if like Sarah said she did slap the fire out of her one day. At first, I thought Sarah was uptight (and she is) but then Tasha can be too much to take.

Billy was DEAD ASS WRONG and CONFUSED! You don’t take your ex-girl to the new girl your trying to get with to help her get why you moved on from her and dumped her. But then Mr. Wilson is a grown man and he did the same thing. He let someone else talk to and deal with his daughter. Someone she didn’t feel remotely anything for. Instead of being a damn MAN and talking to her himself. Look it happens. Teenage boys move on and on and on BUT did you have to make the girl feel like she wasn’t good enough. Linda, you can do SO MUCH BETTER!

The last thing was Allison’s gum control. Ok. Why did she win a prize for this? I’m with Kwame. It sounded like she tried to BS her way through the assignments. She brought in a wad of gum??? She gives NO SOLUTION how to do ANYTHING about gum control and I wouldn’t have given her a prize. I would have given her an F. And I definitely see April more in a girl group like Good 2 Go (Never Satisfied) than as a rap star. But then back when this book was written one of the really great things about rap was there was light rap as well as gangster rap and they both were GOOD! And Kwame should be smart enough to know that there will never really be world peace. If not he’ll certainly find that out down the line.

Rating: 8 I just think Jennifer needs a psychiatrist. She and her father. Clearly, it’s something going on with him too if he’s a surgeon and he can’t find a woman his own age. Jennifer’s party dress tho was HAWT! I don’t know why they didn’t put her in that on the cover!