Summary of Book:
First Daughter: Extreme American Makeover by Mitali Perkins is a multicultural children's literature story. This book is about a Pakistani girl named Sameera, who was adopted by a diplomat. She attends school abroad and when she returns home, her adopted father is running for the Presidency. Her adopted family wants her to act a certain way. She is okay with it at first, however, she eventually realizes it is wrong and then comes to grip with the real her.

Personal Reaction:
I like this book because it shows a side multicultural literature that I have never seen before. Pakistan is not a typical culture Americans are aware of, so I think this book helps bring awareness to that.

Classroom Extension:
For my classroom Extension I would focus on my students' cultures. For example, if I had a Jewish child in my classroom, we would have a lesson about the Jewish culture. I think it is so important that children are aware and have background knowledge about different cultures that they will come in contact with on a day to day basis. ( )

Summary: The book, First Daughter: Extreme American Makeover, is about Sameera who is Pakistani, but adopted by a diplomat. She is attends school abroad and then returns to the U.S as her father is campaigning to be the President. Sameera struggles with the glamour of being a 'celebrity' and the image that they are trying to portray her in. At first, she is okay with going along with the ditzy personality they want to her to be but eventually she fights back and comes to terms with her true self.

Personal Reaction: I think this is a great book because it shows children dealing with situations they will encounter all too often. Many kids have a hard time with who society or their family wants them to be and who they feel they are on the inside.

Classroom Extension: I think it would be great to focus on the Pakistani portion of this book. In the classroom we could learn about their culture. We could also do a multicultural potluck to experience the food. ( )

Sameera Righton was adopted at the age of three from a Pakistani orphanage by a white American politician and a white American international human rights advocate. Now, thirteen years later, her father is running for U.S. President, and the campaign staff views Samira as a liability: too "ethnic" -- and by implication, too "un-American" -- for the U.S. public.

I love Sameera. We first see her as a coxswain at a school in Brussels, just after having coxed her team to victory. "Spunk" is such an overused virtue in YA chicklit, but she's got a stubborn core of knowing who she is and loving who she is, that makes me happy to hang out with her. There are parts of the campaign-led makeover that she likes -- it's fun to try on Rodeo Drive-mediated chic -- and she's willing to experiment with the identities that the campaign wants to put her on. She's coached to wave "like an American girl" (palm out, flapping her fingers from the palm-knuckle joint) and to blow kisses at the paparazzi, and she gives both a go. And, you know, it's fine, especially just for a campaign event or twelve. But it's silly for anyone to think that the kiss-blower is who she is, or that it makes her more "American" than she already was.

(Also? Her parents are cool, too. And as much as I thought that slipping around town incognito in a salwar kameez and head-covering is the stuff that campaign disaster is made of, I liked those sections of the book, too.)

Where the novel falls down, I'm afraid, is in its portrayal of political campaigns, electoral politics, and the internet. I wholly believe that the campaign staff wanted to manage her image, and that they felt it vitally important to "Americanize" that image. I find it grossly improbable, however, that their manufactured image of choice was a life-size Bratz Doll, with a fake online persona that burbles in pink glitter about "hot guyz" and going shopping. I find it improbable that the campaign staff finds her summers on her grandparents' Ohio dairy farm, where she milks cows and mucks out stalls, a campaign liability. (Seriously?? That's the modern-day log cabin! Campaign staff would kill for that sort of thing!) I find it similarly improbable that they give her canned talking points about boyfriends but never give her coaching about how to handle press questions about her citizenship or race. (Inept coaching I would have bought. But no coaching?)

I had similar reservations about the climax, but that would be spoilerific.

All that said, I do have enough interest in Sameera to continue on and see what she makes of the White House. Because I'm pretty sure Sameera had some pretty strong thoughts on that. Whether I'll find the White House worldbuilding plausible, however, may be another a matter.

Adopted from Pakistan at a young age, Sameera (Sparrow to her friends) has traveled all over the world with her political family, and is usually unnoticed. When her father enters the presidential race, Sameera is suddenly thrust into the spotlight, and the PR people want to make her more "American". She goes along with their ideas for a bit, but with the help of some new friends decides that what she really wants is to be true to herself. ( )

Kind of a "Princess Diaries" feel. ( )