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A Potential Problem
A gifted student, Lily follows the rules, makes her parents proud, and gives the impression that she’s strong enough to handle anything. Maybe that’s why her recently divorced parents think it’s perfectly acceptable to leave her unsupervised All. The. Time. What they don’t seem to realize is that their barely teenage daughter is struggling because of it.
When her middle school reputation downgrades from awesome potential to “creepy counting girl”, Lily begins to act out as only a gifted teen can – faster and more thoroughly than everyone else. Diving head first into trouble, Lily falls hard for Tony Jacquez, a local gangbanger with a problem much bigger than hers. In way over her head, but too young and in love to realize it, Lily ultimately uses both her book-smarts and newly-acquired street-smarts in a plan to help Tony. Only this time it’s Lily who forgets she’s really just a kid.
A Potential Problem is a 53,000-word realistic YA fiction novel, the first novel in the Lily Gardner series.
When her middle school reputation downgrades from awesome potential to “creepy counting girl”, Lily begins to act out as only a gifted teen can – faster and more thoroughly than everyone else. Diving head first into trouble, Lily falls hard for Tony Jacquez, a local gangbanger with a problem much bigger than hers. In way over her head, but too young and in love to realize it, Lily ultimately uses both her book-smarts and newly-acquired street-smarts in a plan to help Tony. Only this time it’s Lily who forgets she’s really just a kid.
A Potential Problem is a 53,000-word realistic YA fiction novel, the first novel in the Lily Gardner series.
125 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 3, 2011
10 people want to read
About the author
Jennifer Groepl
1 book4 followersLiving in beautiful Southwest Florida, she spends most days glued to her computer, but also enjoys running, rollerblading, eating pizza and chocolate, watching Netflix, reading, and generally goofing off whenever possible.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 22, 2011
For such a short story, Jennifer Groepl tackled many touching, heart breaking issues. Anything from divorce, rape, to drug abuse is covered in this one of a kind story of a girl’s journey through a very tough moment in her young life.
When we were first introduced to the main character Lily, I had a hard time liking her. I found a lot of her actions unbelievable even though I could definitely understand where she was coming from. Finding out her parents are divorcing, watching her mom spend all her time at work, while her dad spent all his time with his new family could not have been easy on Lily. I could relate to this part of the story so very well because for the longest time, that was how my life was. But I just couldn’t understand her attitude. Lily was always going from happy to depressed, mouthing off to any adult figure in sight, saying a stream of swear words that I, now an 18-year-old, don’t say. I started to get really annoyed until I remembered her age. Well of course it all made sense after that! Middle school girls act like that. My younger sister acts like that along with all of her friends. They say swear words, they mouth off to adults, they pout about everything. That is exactly what pre-teen (well most pre-teen girls…not me, I was definitely an out-of-the-norm type of kid) act. A lot of young girls feel like the whole world is closing in on them so they rebel against anything they possibly can. Lily was no exception to this generalization.
Lily’s downfall begins right after the divorce. She starts speaking out against both of her parents. In all honesty, I would have not have been able to handle all of the things these people say to her. Her dad’s new girlfriend is so cruel towards Lily and her dad just watches it happen. Iris, Lily’s older sister takes all her frustration of the divorce out on her. With everyone either ignoring or being completely mean to Lily, my heart broke for her. I couldn’t imagine being in her situation.
Soon Lily’s troubles at home transfer to troubles at school. She is going to a gifted school but after her parent’s divorce, Lily finds it hard to concentrate on a whole lot. Sixth grade goes by for Lily and before she knows it 7th grade has approached and she will be completely alone because her best friend Ana will not be attending the same school. If things were bad with Lily before, they begin to get much, much worse at this point. Lily is buried beneath so much loneliness that she just stops caring. She drinks, smokes both cigarettes and marijuana, and you could just forget about her actually doing her homework. I felt so incredibly bad for this character. She was in so much intense pain and I could feel it with every turning page.
The problems for Lily continue when her dad announces that he will be marrying his evil girlfriend. In rebellion towards that, Lily starts to hang out with her next door neighbor Randy. For the most part he is a pretty nice guy if you don’t consider the fact that he is much older and deals marijuana. I won’t get into much detail, but a tragedy strikes Lily that Randy is a part of. After this happened, I was a bit confused with the story. As you can tell from above, there are A LOT of issues that this short story deals with. In fact, I think there may be too many issues. I know that divorce, depression, rape, alcohol and drug use, as well as rebellion are huge problems that young people deal with today but I think this story would have been a bit more beneficial had it focused on a few of these as opposed to all of them. After a while, I found myself in such a negative state of mind. So many bad things were happening to one character!
I would have found this to be way too negative of a story had we not been introduced to a certain someone! About halfway through the story, Lily starts hanging out with a young guy named Tony. Tony reminded me somewhat of the Fuentes brothers from Simone Elkeles’ Perfect Chemistry series. Tony is a part of a gang but he is trying his best to make a good life for himself regardless of all the crap he has been dealt. Tony and Lily are quite a match. While both of them do have a few bad habits like smoking pot and cigarettes, they ultimately want the best for one another. Tony is like a bright ray of sunshine in Lily’s life and I love him for that. He loves her for who she is, makes her feel special and beautiful, plus he pushes her to want a better life.
But again, this positive bit of story is tarnished by another negative instance. After dating for a long time, Lily discovers Tony with another girl. After months of being apart, Lily finally allows Tony to apologize. It is then that we learn of Tony’s place in the gang and he and Lily devise a plan to get him out of it. Of course the gang would not just allow Tony to leave just like that.
Major things happen in the end; people are hospitalized, and the story ends on a rather sad note but I still think it is a series I will continue reading. If an author can make me care so deeply about a character in the span of 53,000 words, then it is an author I will without a doubt continue reading. Although this story was weighed down with one negative problem after another, I loved the bright moments that were of Lily and Tony together. I am anxious to see where Jennifer takes these two characters in future books!
When we were first introduced to the main character Lily, I had a hard time liking her. I found a lot of her actions unbelievable even though I could definitely understand where she was coming from. Finding out her parents are divorcing, watching her mom spend all her time at work, while her dad spent all his time with his new family could not have been easy on Lily. I could relate to this part of the story so very well because for the longest time, that was how my life was. But I just couldn’t understand her attitude. Lily was always going from happy to depressed, mouthing off to any adult figure in sight, saying a stream of swear words that I, now an 18-year-old, don’t say. I started to get really annoyed until I remembered her age. Well of course it all made sense after that! Middle school girls act like that. My younger sister acts like that along with all of her friends. They say swear words, they mouth off to adults, they pout about everything. That is exactly what pre-teen (well most pre-teen girls…not me, I was definitely an out-of-the-norm type of kid) act. A lot of young girls feel like the whole world is closing in on them so they rebel against anything they possibly can. Lily was no exception to this generalization.
Lily’s downfall begins right after the divorce. She starts speaking out against both of her parents. In all honesty, I would have not have been able to handle all of the things these people say to her. Her dad’s new girlfriend is so cruel towards Lily and her dad just watches it happen. Iris, Lily’s older sister takes all her frustration of the divorce out on her. With everyone either ignoring or being completely mean to Lily, my heart broke for her. I couldn’t imagine being in her situation.
Soon Lily’s troubles at home transfer to troubles at school. She is going to a gifted school but after her parent’s divorce, Lily finds it hard to concentrate on a whole lot. Sixth grade goes by for Lily and before she knows it 7th grade has approached and she will be completely alone because her best friend Ana will not be attending the same school. If things were bad with Lily before, they begin to get much, much worse at this point. Lily is buried beneath so much loneliness that she just stops caring. She drinks, smokes both cigarettes and marijuana, and you could just forget about her actually doing her homework. I felt so incredibly bad for this character. She was in so much intense pain and I could feel it with every turning page.
The problems for Lily continue when her dad announces that he will be marrying his evil girlfriend. In rebellion towards that, Lily starts to hang out with her next door neighbor Randy. For the most part he is a pretty nice guy if you don’t consider the fact that he is much older and deals marijuana. I won’t get into much detail, but a tragedy strikes Lily that Randy is a part of. After this happened, I was a bit confused with the story. As you can tell from above, there are A LOT of issues that this short story deals with. In fact, I think there may be too many issues. I know that divorce, depression, rape, alcohol and drug use, as well as rebellion are huge problems that young people deal with today but I think this story would have been a bit more beneficial had it focused on a few of these as opposed to all of them. After a while, I found myself in such a negative state of mind. So many bad things were happening to one character!
I would have found this to be way too negative of a story had we not been introduced to a certain someone! About halfway through the story, Lily starts hanging out with a young guy named Tony. Tony reminded me somewhat of the Fuentes brothers from Simone Elkeles’ Perfect Chemistry series. Tony is a part of a gang but he is trying his best to make a good life for himself regardless of all the crap he has been dealt. Tony and Lily are quite a match. While both of them do have a few bad habits like smoking pot and cigarettes, they ultimately want the best for one another. Tony is like a bright ray of sunshine in Lily’s life and I love him for that. He loves her for who she is, makes her feel special and beautiful, plus he pushes her to want a better life.
But again, this positive bit of story is tarnished by another negative instance. After dating for a long time, Lily discovers Tony with another girl. After months of being apart, Lily finally allows Tony to apologize. It is then that we learn of Tony’s place in the gang and he and Lily devise a plan to get him out of it. Of course the gang would not just allow Tony to leave just like that.
Major things happen in the end; people are hospitalized, and the story ends on a rather sad note but I still think it is a series I will continue reading. If an author can make me care so deeply about a character in the span of 53,000 words, then it is an author I will without a doubt continue reading. Although this story was weighed down with one negative problem after another, I loved the bright moments that were of Lily and Tony together. I am anxious to see where Jennifer takes these two characters in future books!
June 10, 2011
Lily Gardner is precocious in all the right ways - Gifted and Talented program at school, obedient and well-mannered, kind and generous to her friends. But she's a bit sheltered too - so when her parents' divorce rocks the family's foundations, Lily finds out that maybe she's not *quite* as mature and capable as she, and everyone else, thinks she is.
Left mostly to her own devices as her parents pursue their own love lives and entertainments, Lily grows up WAY too fast, and soon becomes precocious in some of the wrong ways. The only people who seem to notice can't do much to help her. The boy she falls in love with - a classic "tough guy with a heart of gold" - would help her if he could, but the problems Tony is fighting are going to expand until they entangle Lily too. Will her parents snap out of it in time to help and protect her - or will she have to struggle through on her own somehow?
"A Potential Problem" perfectly captures life on that precarious line between childhood and adulthood, and the conflicting desires to be independent and be protected. Lily struggles to accept and adapt to her parents' changing lifestyles, and when that seems impossible, to forge her own way.
We like to imagine that all young girls live in carefree, relatively sheltered worlds where their biggest problems are bad hair days; Lily's story makes us realize that they don't. Her character gives a unique and engaging voice to all the teens who are living in the shadows as their parents struggle with (and enjoy) their post-divorce lives. It's not that her parents don't love her (they do), but their neglect damages her in ways that aren't noticeable until it's too late.
In one way, "A Potential Problem" was a little frustrating for me, as a parent of a teen, because I found that I wanted to reach into the pages somehow - I wanted to ground Lily's sister for being a bully, make sure they had supervision, and call up their parents and share a few words. Since I couldn't do that, I took a look at my OWN parenting, and made an effort to become more engaged with my son - more of a "mom" and less of a "roommate who pays all the bills." A novel that is not only absorbing, compelling, and entertaining, but influences you to change how you LIVE, in your daily life? That's a lot to ask for, but APP delivers, on all counts.
My hope is that the teens who read this book will be able to apply Lily's hard-learned lessons to their own lives, maybe be able to speak up and seek guidance from other sources if their parents aren't responsive. I hope that the parents who read this book will take a look at their own parenting, their own kids, their friends and family, and reach out to kids who are struggling. I hope that adults without children will recommend the book to parents they know, and will remember it if and when they become parents themselves. I hope that teachers and guidance counselors recommend it to students and parents alike.
But most of all, I hope the next book in the series is out soon, because I NEED to know what happens next.
Left mostly to her own devices as her parents pursue their own love lives and entertainments, Lily grows up WAY too fast, and soon becomes precocious in some of the wrong ways. The only people who seem to notice can't do much to help her. The boy she falls in love with - a classic "tough guy with a heart of gold" - would help her if he could, but the problems Tony is fighting are going to expand until they entangle Lily too. Will her parents snap out of it in time to help and protect her - or will she have to struggle through on her own somehow?
"A Potential Problem" perfectly captures life on that precarious line between childhood and adulthood, and the conflicting desires to be independent and be protected. Lily struggles to accept and adapt to her parents' changing lifestyles, and when that seems impossible, to forge her own way.
We like to imagine that all young girls live in carefree, relatively sheltered worlds where their biggest problems are bad hair days; Lily's story makes us realize that they don't. Her character gives a unique and engaging voice to all the teens who are living in the shadows as their parents struggle with (and enjoy) their post-divorce lives. It's not that her parents don't love her (they do), but their neglect damages her in ways that aren't noticeable until it's too late.
In one way, "A Potential Problem" was a little frustrating for me, as a parent of a teen, because I found that I wanted to reach into the pages somehow - I wanted to ground Lily's sister for being a bully, make sure they had supervision, and call up their parents and share a few words. Since I couldn't do that, I took a look at my OWN parenting, and made an effort to become more engaged with my son - more of a "mom" and less of a "roommate who pays all the bills." A novel that is not only absorbing, compelling, and entertaining, but influences you to change how you LIVE, in your daily life? That's a lot to ask for, but APP delivers, on all counts.
My hope is that the teens who read this book will be able to apply Lily's hard-learned lessons to their own lives, maybe be able to speak up and seek guidance from other sources if their parents aren't responsive. I hope that the parents who read this book will take a look at their own parenting, their own kids, their friends and family, and reach out to kids who are struggling. I hope that adults without children will recommend the book to parents they know, and will remember it if and when they become parents themselves. I hope that teachers and guidance counselors recommend it to students and parents alike.
But most of all, I hope the next book in the series is out soon, because I NEED to know what happens next.
June 13, 2011
I stayed up 'til almost midnight (wayyyy past my bedtime) because I had to know how it ended. Lily was a sympathetic character, this was a compelling story, I definitely recommend it. It's the first in a series, and I'm already impatient for the next one!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews