Available:*
Library | Material Type | Item Barcode | Shelf Number | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... Avon-Washington Township Public Library | Teen Fiction Book Hardback | 120791001635652 | T LUB | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
Starting high school is never easy. Seniors take your lunch money. Girls you've known forever are suddenly beautiful and unattainable.The guys you grew up with are drifting away.And you can never get enough sleep. Could there be a worse time for Scott's mother to announce she's pregnant? Scott decides high school would be a lot less overwhelming if it came with a survival manual, so he begins to write down tips for his new sibling. Scott's chronicle of his first year of bullies, romance, honors classes, and brotherhood is both laugh-out-loud funny and touchingly wise.
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
As much an exercise in wordplay and narrative structure as it is a rendition of Freshman year woes, Lubar?s (Dunk) story starring Scott Hudson, a brain from a blue-collar background, contains many stock characters and situations associated with high-school initiation. In his first few weeks at Zenger High, Scott gets smacked by Seniors, robbed of his lunch money, ignored by the girl of his dreams and ousted out of his position of youngest member of his family when his mother breaks the news she is pregnant. On the bright side, he has a great Honors English teacher, who encourages Scott to join the newspaper staff and introduces him to some interesting literary devices that Scott practices throughout the novel. Speaking in ?Tom Swifties? (? ?I lost my wrists,? Tom said offhandedly?) couplets (?Me dance?/ Fat chance?) and a few different points of view, Scott reports sports news for the school newspaper and, in a series of journal entries, lends advice to his unborn baby brother. While the book does offer some humorous moments and real-life drama (such as when an unpopular classmate attempts suicide), it strains too hard to be clever. Most readers will breathe a sigh of relief when the gimmicks start to fade as Scott tries his hand at conventional journalism. Ages 12-up. (July) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Horn Book Review
As he fumbles through his freshman year of high school, Scott creates a survival manual to pass along to his not-yet-born sibling, wittily cataloging advice while mulling over changes in his family, friends, and social standing. Smart and likable, Scott is an engaging narrator with a penchant for word games and a snappy sense of humor. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Gr. 8-11. Scott Hudson chronicles the ups and downs of his eventful freshman year in high school, as he joins the newspaper, works as a stage manager for the spring play, learns a lot from his outstanding English teacher, tries to help a student who attempts suicide, is beaten up because of a girl, and goes to the spring dance. Along the way, he discovers that his mother is pregnant, and he writes a series of insightful letters to his soon-to-be sibling. By the end, Scott has outgrown his freshman insecurities, realizing that he has carved a place for himself in the high-school world. The story delivers too many messages as Scott learns one important lesson after another. Still, most readers will find plenty of amusing, accurate observations about freshman life, from the insecurities of first dates to the dangers of walking the hall between classes. --Todd Morning Copyright 2005 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
Gr 7-10-Scott Hudson is the quintessential freshman. He's small, he's lost, and seniors yoke him for spare change. His honors homework keeps him up all night and his gym teacher is trying to kill him. He joins the paper, runs for student council, and tries out for the play, just to be near a girl he likes. This all backfires. He turns out to be the least athletic sports reporter in school history, and freshman lackey to the sadists on stage crew. Meanwhile, his mother is pregnant. The plot is framed by Scott's journal of advice for the unborn baby. The novel's absurd, comical mood is evident in its entries, like "Scott Hudson's List of Good Things about Getting Beat Up," and jabs at the fetus ("I hope we can recover our investment [in baby furniture] when I sell you."). The author brings the protagonist to three-dimensional life by combining these introspective musings with active, hilarious narration. This format also breaks up the story for slower readers. Scott's character arc is extremely satisfying as he develops his true strengths over the nine months of school and the pregnancy. His interactions with the school delinquent and the heavily pierced new girl are fresh and subtle. Though Scott purposely peppers his journal with SAT words, Lubar's language use and writing style are deceptively simple. The teen's physical and emotional tumult is as clear, familiar, and complex as high school itself.-Johanna Lewis, New York Public Library (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Scott's wacky life always plays out in totally unexpected ways. His excitement to be a freshman, finally, is overturned by the horrible reality where he's whacked on the head on the bus, his spare change is stolen, he's totally ignored by all females and he constantly suffers being the lowliest of the low. Even at home, things have turned upside down with older hunky brother's return to base and Mom's surprise announcement of a new sibling to come. Scott nicknames the new arrival Smelly--a combo of Sean and Emily appropriate for either gender, and writes a "NOT a diary" journal with advice and tips for the future. Lubar's gift is in his presentation of the horrors of daily life and the humor that sneaks in as real-life lessons are inadvertently learned. The mystery is who the true friends turn out to be, and the comedy is inherent in how hard it is to learn to go with the flow. Fresh, funny and perfectly plausible as a demonstration of various writing exercises for classroom use, but only if you like laughter. (Fiction. YA) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.