Outside the club Cherry Bomb

Arrgghhh….less than a month into LDIW and I am already shirking my blogging duties. I promise to catch up, really I do. This of course means that you will see blogs on two different books this week and next week. See what happens when summer hits in the North East. All of those summer projects and plans pile up to conspire against my best blogging intentions.

Back on topic…Boys, Girls and Other Hazardous Materials by Rosalind Wiseman. I have to admit that this was a good read. Going into it I really did not think I was going to like it. It’s not the type of novel I would normally pick up, but in order to expand my YA reading horizons I stepped out of my historical fiction/sci-fi/fantasy/strong fem character box.

I liked the trio of girls who are besties in this novel—Charlie, Sydney, and Nidhi. They are fun and provide humorous moments in the drama that is high school. The guys are a bit annoying, although they do finally grown on you by the end. Wiseman covers a plethora of teen issues in BGOHM including: hazing, underage drinking, relationships, friendship/frenemies, racism, school politics, and bullying while creating a fun and engaging cast of characters.

So here is my top five list of “hazardous material” to avoid in high school:

1. Scary upper classmean athletes whose only goal is to make freshman grovel at their feet.

2. School clubs that support superficial attitudes. Pick the school paper, activism, and community outreach instead—they make you smarter.

3. Frenemies--pick your friends based on how they treat you and not by what their connections you get by association.

4. The cute, but not so smart jock, especially if he exhibits stalking tendencies.

5. Any kind of team building activity that involves a jeep, the devil’s brew, and pizza boy on scooter.

And now for the Off the Charts Rating:

The Cover: Those graphic artists know what they are doing. I have an advanced copy which features a comic bookish cherry bomb with a fuse. It is cute and eye catching and fits the title, but it seems that head mucky-mucks chose to issue the book in January with a guy/girl snuggled up behind a book…?!? So my book gets a good rating, while the other released cover gets an OK.

Page Turner Worthiness Factor: I was half way through the book, I had to finish. It was fun, but I did not devour each page.

Coming to a Theatre Near You: What were they thinking, not another moonlight movie? This would make a better television show on ABC Family or the Disney Channel.

Better than a bowl of ice cream: Just plain vanilla. And you know there is nothing wrong with vanilla. It is a good choice for light, summer reading.