The YA lit landscape has changed, of course, and more and more YA novels feature storylines that involve punks and/or music obsessed characters. This was in 1995, back when YA books weren’t the phenomenon they are now, so we read this book over and over and over (in fact, I’ve had to buy three copies of it over the years, as two that I loaned out were never returned to me). I had just found punk rock, and the book was filled with characters that dressed in thrift store clothes and loved underground music, just like me.

“Prinz, who cofounded an indie music store, writes with a genuine passion for music that all readers who live to listen will recognize, and in this heartfelt, often-hilarious story, she shows the profound ways that music can shape lives.When I was a junior in high school, my friends and I were obsessed with Girl by Blake Nelson. At least her blog seems to be gaining interest, one vinyl junkie at a time…. Her mother, though, is actually the one getting the dates, and business at Allie’s beloved record store is becoming dangerously slow-not to mention that there have been a string of robberies in the neighborhood. From the safety of her favorite place on earth, Allie is poised to have it all: love, music and blogging. It’s the perfect setup for her to develop her secret identity as The Vinyl Princess, author of both a brand-new zine and blog. There, Allie can spend her days bantering with the street people, talking the talk with the staff, shepherding the uncool bridge-and-tunnel shoppers, all the while blissfully surrounded by music, music, music. Summer is here, and 16-year-old Allie, a self-professed music geek, is exactly where she wants to be: working full-time at Berkeley’s ultra-cool Bob and Bob Records. You can read the blog of The Vinyl Princess at.

There, she keeps her finger on the pulse of hip teen culture.

A Canadian living in San Francisco, Prinz founded the famed independent music store Amoeba Records with her husband. Yvonne Prinz has written three books in the award-winning Clare series. A Great Good Place for Books proudly welcomes Yvonne Prinz as she reads from her remarkable new novel, THE VINYL PRINCESS, Thursday, March 25th at 7:00 pm.

The Vinyl Princess by Yvonne Prinz