Role Models

   In the book "All American Girl," by Meg Cabot. David's father is the president of the United States. He lives at the white house and goes to a school for gifted students.  Samantha ("Sam") lives in a normal house, is failing German, and spends her days pining away for her sister's boyfriend. It seems as if they have nothing in common. However, they meet one day at drawing class, and then find themselves united again when Sam inadvertently saves the president's life by jumping on the back of the man who is about to shoot him. They soon find out that they have more in common than they thought they did.
    Spoiler Alert: David and Sam end up dating at the end (kind of cliche, but it's a YA novel). However, I like this pair a lot better than some of the couples in Meg Cabot's other books. Sam and David bring out the best in each other. They're both pretty good people on their own, but in the beginning of the book, David is lonely and Sam likes to rebel against society (mostly because her sister's boyfriend is the king of rebellion), so she ends up doing some pretty stupid things. I also feel like David and Sam are both pretty good role models for kids, especially for characters in a YA novel. A lot of characters in these kind of books are spoiled and obsessed with popularity, but Sam surprisingly doesn't complain that much and actually doesn't want to be popular. In fact, when she is invited to a party at the house of the most popular girl in the grade, she doesn't want to go because she thinks the party will be superficial and she would rather be home watching movies. In a lot of YA novels, the main character hates the popular kids, until they are one. However, even as Sam becomes popular for saving the president's life, she still remains modest, which I admire. David is also a good role model because he likes Sam for who she is, and is a pretty nice guy who wants to do good things for the world, but without rebelling. He is a pretty good kid. Part of the reason I liked this book was because the main characters had faults, but overall they were good people.