leahrosereads
Written on Apr 26, 2014
Mom of the Year by Denise Pischinger is a short, fun read under a new genre called Script Lit. I was honestly curious as to what this type of genre entails, and once I read why the genre was created, I could see how this novella could have been a movie. It read like a movie the entire way through, but I don’t believe it would have done well as one. I think this story works better in its written format, and I enjoyed reading this novella a lot.
Mom of the Year follows Janie Parker, Class Mom Extraordinaire, and her family. Her husband Greg, a chef at a local, failing Dallas restaurant, is given reigns to the better off Houston branch. He uproots his family, and now Janie is forced from #1 Class Mom to the bottom of the barrel at her daughter’s new school district. Her daughter, Kelsey, couldn’t be any happier for this change.
The Top Mom at Bear Branch Elementary School is also the HISD Mom of the Year, Lanette Middleton. Janie sees Mom of the Year as a type of recognition she must have.
Janie strives for that title throughout the novella, normally at the expense of her family, and almost ruins her marriage, but she feels like it’s the only way for her to succeed.
On Janie’s journey to win Mom of the Year, she is given a class mother to help her with all of her events, and boy is Sherrie NOT what Janie needs, if she hopes to win. Sherrie Pixler is nothing like Janie. Janie’s well groomed and ambitious, Sherrie’s wild and easygoing. She does the class mom thing for her kid, whereas Janie really does it for herself.
There are several interesting subplots in Mom of the Year, including Janie’s dysfunctional relationship with her own mother. As the reader, I get why Janie is the way she is, because of her mom, but I still think that at 35, she should have made amends with her mommy issues.
I disliked Janie 90% of the time in this novella. To me, she’s not a likable character until the end of the book. I didn’t feel sorry for her, only for her family, and even though I really didn’t like Lanette, I didn’t want Janie to win either. They turned something that is supposed to be fun for the classroom into a competition that should have embarrassed the school district, if the principal or anyone in charge had checked up on these overly ambitious mothers.
But, just like in any good movie, there’s a phenomenal ending to this feel good story.