Overview from Barnes and Noble
A romantic and empowering book about bullying
Noelle's life is all about
survival. Even her best friend doesn't know how much she gets bullied,
or the ways her mom neglects her. Noelle's kept so much about her life a
secret for so long that when her longtime crush Julian Porter starts
paying attention to her, she's terrified. Surely it's safer to stay
hidden than to risk the pain of a broken heart. But when the antagonism
of her classmates takes a dramatic turn, Noelle realizes it's time to
stand up for herself--and for the love that keeps her holding on.
My Review
I'm kind of sick of the bullying topic - eeek! I'm a teacher - am I allowed to even say that? Seems like this topic is everywhere!
But I am. I know it is a serious topic and it happens, but most people don't know how to define bullying (repeated acts) from a one time event. I am also tired of reading stories where teachers, students and other adults know about bullying or do nothing and there is no supervision etc. Some of Noelle's friends knew she was being bullied and did nothing - this would NOT happen. A good school would also notice a girl sitting alone in the cafeteria and do something about it. All of that happened in this book and me (as a teacher) was thinking, "where are the teachers to stop/change this!?!?!" I'm in a school where we are aware of what is going on to stop a majority of bullying.
Back to the book. That's what the book dealt with - a lower income girl that was bullied (primarily because she lied about something that involved her mom and finances - I can't even remember because it was such a stupid reason for her to be an outcast). Hmmm.... most of the time a really pretty girl that lies once about something stupid (even if she is poor) isn't an outcast and isn't bullied the way this character was. I found it somewhat unrealistic. Of course Taylor Swift was bullied so what do I know!?!
The book kept my interest and I appreciate the message the author was sending. In fact, this should be a book that middle and high school teens read because of the content and understanding how standing up for someone can make a huge difference. However, when comparing this book to the other books by Colasanti, I felt like these characters lacked the depth that I found in her other novels. I didn't get to know them as well as I wanted to. For example - her love interest - what is his deal? Why did he all of a sudden start to notice her. This was not really mentioned. I guess my problem with the story was I didn't have a reason to really like or dislike any character and some parts were too exaggerated and unrealistic. My favorite things were the themes of the book and the great teaching ideas I gained from Noelle's physics teacher (I am going to implement some of her teaching strategies!).
2.5/5 Stars
Erin
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