What People Are Saying

"Let’s start out this review by saying I really, REALLY, liked this book...The Vinyl Princess by debut novelist Yvonne Prinz. Let’s set the record straight. There are no negatives about this book beginning with the cover art and moving through the story.

Allie (Alberta—her name is a long story) works at Bob and Bob’s Record Store in Berkeley. She’s been there for two years and is a music and LP record buff...none of this CD or download stuff for her. She’s got a record collection numbering in the hundreds. She’s sixteen and boyfriend-less. She’s more concerned with music than with wearing the right clothes and looking fashionable. Her best friend, Kit, is the boy magnet. She works in a vintage clothing store. While Allie gets to pick the cream of the crop of records that are for sale, Kit gets to pick the newest vintage clothes and she looks great in what she picks. These friends are inseparable.

Kit’s having boyfriend problems. Neil, she thinks, is cheating on her. Allie has boyfriend problems too, in that she doesn’t have one. However, there’s this cute guy who’s been coming into the store lately and Allie’s fantasizing that maybe he likes her. Meanwhile, there has been a rash of robberies in the stores on Telegraph Avenue. Allie thinks it’s these two well dressed guys who’ve been hanging around across the street next to a fancy car with dark windows…not the clientele seen on Telegraph. Finally, Allie’s parents are divorced and her dad, who’s moved in with young Kee-Kee, has announced that Allie’s going to be a big sister. Just what a 17-year-old wants to hear. So, what’s so great about The Vinyl Princess? First of all..." [read the rest of the review ]
—Young Adult Books Central, April 12, 2010

Interview: Tarie, at Into the Wardrobe, interviews Yvonne and reviews The Vinyl Princess.
—Into the Wardrobe, March 14, 2010

Allie has a single-minded devotion to records on vinyl. Schooled by her father since she was in diapers, she's now sixteen, and one of the most knowledgeable employees of Bob & Bob Records on the famous Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, California.

She decides to start a blog and a zine, hoping to convert others to her vinyl obsession. Meanwhile, she's majorly crushing on a mysterious new boy hanging around Telegraph and trying to fend off the attentions f a sketchy guy from New York who may be as obsessed with vinyl as she is, while her parents and friend Kit have romantic troubles of her own. As much a homage to place as the story of one summer in a teen girl's life, this narrative captures the community feel of locals in a college town, watching their avenue of indie shops go through the ups and downs of retail. The record store is hardest hit, of course, taken down by the savage combo of easy downloading, big-box retailers, and a bad economy. But life goes on, and it needs a soundtrack, which Allie is happily capable of providing through her choice of playlists and her blog reflections on some of the greatest works ever pressed into vinyl. A silent but interesting subtext sidles in as the internet giveth and taketh away: the brick-and-mortar record store can't compete with the downloaders, but eBay and blogging keep the collectors connected to each other and their albums. Give this to the fans of Audrey, Wait! (BCCB 4/08). KC
—The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, March 10, 2010

“Sixteen-year-old Allie is an analog kid in a digital world. With a part-time job at Bob & Bob Records in Berkeley, California, and a new blog and ‘zine under the nom de guerre The Vinyl Princess, Allie is a music devotee – nay, fanatic – with charmingly eclectic tastes and a winning, if occasionally acerbic, attitude. She lives with her mother, her father having left more than a year ago. She has close friends, a funky neighbourhood, a record store full of acquaintances, and a serious crush on an older man.

This new novel from Edmonton-born, California-based Yvonne Prinz, whose Not Fair, Clare was shortlisted for the Red Maple Award, follows Allie through one summer, as her pleasant and familiar existence is shaken by developments on every front. Not only is her mother starting to date, but her best friend Kit, whose boyfriend (a drummer) is cheating on her, is considering breast enhancement surgery. Plus Bob & Bob is suffering in a world of digital music piracy, and a pair of daring thieves is preying on neighbourhood businesses.

Owing to the significant music-fan content of the book and its record-store setting, the publicity material for The Vinyl Princess cites Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity as a touchstone. It’s not a bad comparison, but a more apt pop culture reference is Pretty in Pink, the 1986 John Hughes film starring Molly Ringwald. And that’s a compliment. Prinz has created in Allie a sharp-witted, willfully eccentric character whose story resonates with familiar emotional truths. There are few of the histrionics of contemporary YA fiction here: no sexual brinkmanship, no drug abuse, no heavy-handed moralizing. Instead, The Vinyl Princess is a winning novel with a protagonist who will make a wonderful role model for any reader whose tastes run even slightly counter to the mainstream.”
—Quill & Quire, starred review February 22, 2010

Following a 16 year old semi-reclusian vinyl junkie named Allie, The Vinyl Princess perfectly encapsulates the diminishing appreciation for the musical integrity, specifically in the LP form. Raised by a freethinking Berkeley scholar mother, Allie is more conscious to the world around her than her peers, and, being the daughter of a drummer, she also has a deep respect and love for the musical greats, across all genres...read the rest of the review
—Music Induced Euphoria February 21, 2010

Interview: Yvonne sits down for a Q and A with Mandy Brouse. Read the interview over at Edge of Seventeen.com
—Edge of Seventeen February 3, 2010

"My first thought reading this awesome tome in August of last year: No one in the world could possibly have such an encyclopedic knowledge of music. No one, that is, except for the cofounder of Amoeba Music, Yvonne Prinz. If you’ve ever been to the Bay Area, and you care even a little bit about music, you’ve been to Amoeba. It’s a freakin’ oasis. And a place not unlike Amoeba — on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley — is where we meet The Vinyl Princess. Her real name is Allie. Actually, her real name is Alberta. But that’s a long story..." (read the rest of the review)
—YA New York February 1, 2010

Amoeba co-founder uses teen literature to wax on the past, look to the digital future
A few days before Christmas, Harper Teen released the young-adult novel "The Vinyl Princess." While Pop & Hiss doesn't cover the intersection of literature and music nearly as much as we should, "The Vinyl Princess" instantly caught our attention -- and not just because of the striking cover. Yvonne Prinz, the book's author, was one of the founders of Amoeba Music, and her retail experience is reflected heavily in the book. Issues facing indie retailers even crop up in the novel, although they're filtered through a teenage lens. Here is an extended version of a story that will run in Friday's Calendar section. Prinz discussed the book, and shared some of Amoeba's plans for 2010... (read the full article)
—Los Angeles Times January 28, 2010

"All hail, Yvonne Prinz ... the Princess, nay the Queen, of Vinyl.
As a teen, she worked at A&A Records in Edmonton Centre. At 29, she fled to the San Francisco area, where she co-founded one of California's most beloved independent record chains, Amoeba Music, in Berkeley..." (read the full article)
—Edmonton Journal/CanWest News Service January 19, 2010

"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. 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..." (read the full review)
—LibraryLoungeLizard.com January 19, 2010

THE VINYL PRINCESS by Yvonne Prinz
Category: Contemporary       Age Recommendation: Grades 9+
Release Date: 12/22/09       Publisher: HarperTeen
Reviewed by: Cat       Rating: 5 Stars
How does a self-proclaimed music geek with encyclopedic knowledge of vinyl's history survive in an MP3 obsessed, Billboard Top 40 world? If you're sixteen-year-old Allie, you spend every free moment "practically running" Bob & Bob's Records, comb the flea markets of Berkeley for classic LPs, while composing articles for your blog and zine...[read the full review]
—TeensReadToo.com January 13, 2010

Music Store a Castle to 'Vinyl Princess'
Yvonne Prinz is the vinyl princess. As a teenager growing up in Edmonton, Alberta, the daughter of Dutch immigrants got a job in a record store. Years later, after moving to California, she and her husband started the largest independent record store in the country, Amoeba Music of Berkeley. After writing a successful trilogy of novels for young adults featuring a character named Clare - "Not Fair Clare," "Double-Dare Clare" and "Still There Clare" - Prinz has introduced Allie, the star of her new book for young adults, "The Vinyl Princess," the story of a young girl working in a record store on Berkeley's Telegraph Avenue a lot like Amoeba. "I wanted to write a 'High Fidelity' for kids," she said over lunch this month at a Berkeley restaurant....[read the rest of the article]
—San Francisco Chronicle December 26, 2009

The Vinyl Princess Yvonne Prinz. HarperTeen, $16.99 (320p) ISBN 978-0-06-171583-9
Prinz (the Clare series) is the cofounder of the independent music store chain Amoeba Music, and her latest novel has all the props of the trade. School’s out and 16-year-old Allie, aka the Vinyl Princess, is working at Bob & Bob’s Records in Berkeley, Calif., for the summer—a quintessentially dingy haven for music geeks, anti-downloaders, and street freaks. Over the span of three months, she attracts the attention of a roguish mystery boy she calls “M,” witnesses a robbery, shepherds her divorced mom through the perils of online dating, finds her soul mate, and starts a vinyl listeners–only blog/fanzine (“Corporate rock still sucks; downloading is harmful to music and other living organisms. Music is love”). While Allie’s personal dramas are entertaining, what makes the book stand out is her encyclopedic, cross-genre knowledge of bands, songs, and albums, beyond the usual suspects. References to the old-fashioned but still cherished mix-giving ritual will be appreciated by music connoisseurs and novices alike. Allie’s song lists are an education in themselves—they’re worth a listen and this is worth a read. Ages 12–up. (Jan.)
—Publisher's Weekly December 14, 2009

"Where can I even begin? I really loved The Vinyl Princess and am caught off guard by how good it turned out. Something happens when you realize just how awesome a book is, while you're reading it, where you slow down and really process what's happening on the page." [read the rest of the review]
—Edge of Seventeen December 1, 2009

"Armed with wry and delicious cynicism, a deep and bottomless emotional sensitivity and more musical smarts than a multi-degreed musicologist, Allie—Yvonne Prinz's record store-working main character of her new book The Vinyl Princess—is the coolest narrator of any book in recent memory. Gainfully employed at Bob & Bob Records in Berkeley, the street smart sixteen-year-old lives to hover a needle over the rotating black body of a well-chosen piece of vinyl and lower it into the groove. She's an L.P. purist, a throwback, a vinyl-only girl walking lonely through a digital age. In a time where music is flashed back and forth from email to iPod to hard drive, Allie reminds us of the days when the listener was involved with the physicality of music; the days of making a mix in real time or tilting a piece of vinyl up to the light, holding your breath and hoping not to find a scratch." [read the rest of the review]
—Caught in the Carousel November 23, 2009

Amoeba co-founder pens record-store novel for teens
Label executives occasionally write books about the record business, but it's far rarer to see someone from music retailing knock out a tome about record stores. But that's what Amoeba Music co-founder Yvonne Prinz has done. She hasn't written a business book but rather a teen-targeted novel, The Vinyl Princess, due December 22 from HarperCollins... [click for full article]
—Billboard November 6, 2009

“I’m what people in the record store business refer to as a ‘throwback,’ an ‘audiophile,’ a ‘record geek.’” Sixteen-year-old Allie, a fierce defender of vinyl in the age of music downloads, loves her job at Bob & Bob Records, an independent store that’s walking distance from the rambling Berkeley home she shares with her recently divorced mom. Over a single summer, Allie starts a music blog that attracts international readers, falls for a dreamy stranger with a seriously shady past, watches her parents awkwardly navigate new relationships, and finally discovers true romance with a music-loving soul mate. Chick-lit readers will recognize some familiar trappings in this enjoyable coming-of-age story: a wisecracking first-person voice; an eccentric, lovable best friend; disappointing guys; wacky relatives; and charming princes who have been there all along. But 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.”
—Booklist November 1, 2009