Cherry Money Baby

Starred review from July 22, 2013
While working her usual shift at the Burrito Barn, Cherry Kerrigan rescues a choking customer, an A-list movie star who is in town to shoot a film. Ardelia Deen is so grateful that she gives Cherry her Alfa Romeo, and so impressed by Cherry’s unvarnished perspective that she makes her a paid consultant; Cherry will help vet potential surrogates to carry the baby the actress desperately wants. Cherry, who is at ease in grimy sweats, comes to realize many things, including the importance of appearance. The candidates “chatted on... while their outfits whispered subliminal messages: I’m reliable. I’m spiritual. I’m relaxed. I don’t care what you think.” Author/literary agent Cusick (Girl Parts) gives Cherry a sarcastic and often profane voice. The supporting cast—Cherry’s blue-collar father, her chill boyfriend, and Ardelia’s caustic manager—round out a plot that continually surprises. Cherry is a highly memorable character, prone to violent outbursts but possessing a strong moral compass, a rare smalltown girl who isn’t consumed by anxiety over getting into college or out of town—even when she has the chance to dip her toe into the pool with some big-time celebrities. Ages 14–up.

September 1, 2013

Gr 9 Up-Foul-mouthed, short-tempered Cherry Kerrigan, 17, knows exactly what she wants from life. She's in love with the boy next door and plans to marry him as soon as she's through with high school. Her father has higher hopes for her; he wants her to go to college and rise above their trailer-park lifestyle. After her town's cola plant gets turned into a movie set, Cherry winds up performing the Heimlich maneuver on the star. Her father is completely supportive of the resulting unlikely friendship between his daughter and the British starlet. Ardelia Deen, raised amid the British aristocracy, finds Cherry's straightforward approach to life refreshing. She hires Cherry to help her in the search for a surrogate mother for her child. Cherry gets inevitably drawn into the lifestyle of the rich and famous and begins to question her own aspirations as Ardelia demands increasing amounts of her time. Things come to a head when Cherry's family loses everything after her weed-smoking brother, who is supposed to be in her care, accidentally burns down their trailer. Riddled with guilt, she considers Ardelia's offer of $250,000 to be the one to carry her child. At Ardelia's mansion in England, however, events force Cherry to rethink the direction her life is taking. Cusick has created an unlikely role model in sassy Cherry and added generous amounts of humor to her story. -Cary Frostick, Mary Riley Styles Public Library, Falls Church, VA

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 15, 2013
A small-town girl is tempted by money and status in this intriguing, character-driven work. Defying the stereotype, proud, fiercely loyal Alice "Cherry" Kerrigan is perfectly fine being the one who doesn't get away. She's deeply in love with Lucas, her boyfriend and neighbor in the trailer park where she lives with her dad and stoner younger brother, and the two plan to marry once they graduate and stay in their hometown. However, when Cherry saves the life of choking movie star Ardelia Deen, it sets into motion a host of events that shake Cherry's faith in herself and her decisions. There is plenty to like in this novel that maintains a mostly light tone while it riffs on weighty questions about class and the pressures of fame. Not least of all is Cherry's incisive wit: "Hey! Fucking...Barney Fife! I'm talking to you!" she yells at a security guard who mistakenly thinks that Lucas is harassing her, presumably because he is black and she is white. But the already somewhat fantastical plot stretches even further when it turns out Ardelia is looking for a surrogate mother to have a baby for her, and eventually, suspending disbelief becomes too noticeable a chore. Smart and often funny but ultimately overly complicated. (Fiction. 14 & up)

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September 15, 2013
Grades 8-11 When expert burrito-roller Cherry Kerrigan hops over the counter at Burrito Barn to save the life of a choking woman, she has no idea what she's setting in motion. Grateful Ardelia Deen, a movie star filming near Cherry's trailer home, repays Cherry for the gesture by giving her a sweet car and a cushy job offering a down-to-earth perspective on the women Ardelia interviews as possible pregnancy surrogates. Inevitably, a friendship develops, offering Cherry a glimpse at life beyond what her small-town, hardworking family and boyfriend can offer herand beyond any previous aspirations she has held. There's a lot going on in this novel, which is by turns breezy and deadly serious. The interplay of class and wealth, choice and chance drive Cherry's actions, but trust and betrayal, homelessness, interracial relationships, and pregnancy also play into the narrative. Seeing the greater world at Ardelia's side may not change Cherry's direction very much, but it helps her move there with greater confidence, secure in who she is.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2014
Cherry lives in a trailer park and intends to marry the boy next door. Then she saves the life of Ardelia, a movie star, and everything changes. Cherry begins working for Ardelia, but when Ardelia asks if she's interested in an unconventional job, Cherry must reassess everything. The story alternates between authentically funny moments and serious meditations on wealth.

(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)