Review: "Are You Experienced?," by Jordan Sonnenblick

This is unlike most of the other Sonnenblick books I've read. It has the heart and the humor and the family angle, but the content is aimed more at high school than middle school. Fifteen year old Richard is struggling with his overprotective, super high maintenance parents and all their rules. He sneaks out to play his guitar at a protest to legalize marijuana and ends up arrested. His dad FLIPS OUT! So what's a teenager to do when he's already in trouble? Sneak into his dad's secret closet and find the guitar played by Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock, of course! One chord played on that guitar and Richard is mysteriously transported back in time to Woodstock where he hangs with no other than his fifteen-year-old dad David, his eighteen-year-old uncle Mike, and Mike's girlfriend Willow! His goal is to try to change the past so that his uncle Mike won't overdose on heroin and turn his dad into the grumpy overprotective parent he is in the present. Laced with cameos from musicians of the past, and including many references to drugs and hippies, this more mature book from Sonnenblick will have adult fans reminiscing about that 1969 concert and have the teen fans rooting for Richie's success.

Mrs. Denney's Rating: ***1/2

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