Going Geek

Going Geek by Charlotte Huang   304 pages

High School is hell; all who survives it realizes that at some point in their life. I was attracted to this book because I was curious as to how much technology and, I’d like to think, advanced emotional and psychological growth, had changed being a teenager.

In this story, Skylar is looking forward to her senior year at a preppy, East Coast boarding school. It’s going to be the best. Year. Ever. She is going with one of the stars of the soccer team; her friends are ultra-cool, and she’s in the best dorm.

As fate would have it, when she arrives, Skylar has been transferred to another dorm…one off the beaten path of all the socially cool events, and gasp, filled with geeks.  Honest to god weirdos.

Her best friend drops her, and the other girls follow suit. She lies to her boyfriend, which causes severe trust issues. And it seems the geeks in her new dorm might, sort of, kind of like her.

It turn out that high school hasn’t changed at all since I graduated almost 50 years ago.  This is a quick read, with fast-paced writing and not an abundance of description.

Going Geek  gets 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

The Secret To Lying

The Secret To Lying by Todd Mitchell, 328 pages

No one ever noticed James until the day he changed schools and went to the American School for Mathematics and Science, a residential school for gifted teens.  James decides to make up stories about his life at home and cultivate an image of a tough guy, always looking for a fight, but reformed now.  Most people believe him since no one knew him from before.  However, James starts getting messages from someone online who clearly knows that James’s stories aren’t true.  James feels comfortable telling this person a lot about who he really is but he doesn’t even know who the person is he’s talking to.  And as close as he feels, he still isn’t ready to open up about who he really is and what is really wrong.  I really liked this story.  It felt completely real to me and since it was set in my high school, it also really took me back to that time.  I wonder if I like it so much because it’s really that good or because it was so easy for me to relate, but I think it’s both, which means that I plan to start pushing this book on a lot of the teens that come to the Library.

Unfriended

Unfriended by Rachel Vail, 282 pages

When Truly is asked to sit at the popular table she jumps at the chance.  Of course, this means that she has to leave behind her friend, Hazel, who is a little strange and isn’t asked to join them.  Truly is totally excited by her new friends but is nervous about fitting in especially because the girl who invited her, Natasha, was her best friend until 6^th grade.  When Natasha became popular she dropped Truly until now.  But everyone else, Brooke, Lulu and Evangeline are all so nice.  Then strange things start happening online.  First, Natasha is targeted and then Truly.  Will the friendship be able to survive the cyberbullying?  This was an okay book for younger teens who like realistic contemporary stories.

Popular: Vintage Wisdom For A Modern Geek

Popular: Vintage Wisdom For A Modern Geek by Maya Van Wagenen, 259 pages

This is a memoir by Maya, who, right before her eighth grade year, discovers a 1950’s popularity guide written by former teen model, Betty Cornell.  At her mother’s suggestion, Maya decides to follow the advice in the book and keep notes to see if the advice from the 1950’s would hold true in today’s world.  Maya is someone who considers herself unpopular, one of the social outcasts in her school.  Each month she takes a different chapter from the book and follows the advice from that chapter.  She changes her diet, hairstyles, and clothes and starts wearing makeup.  She also starts to talk to kids she never would have approached before.  This book is written in a diary format and follows each month through so we get to see which changes Maya is trying to bring about and how they are affecting her life.  This book is actually very funny and extremely well written, especially for such a young person.  I really enjoyed reading it and think that a lot of teens as well as adults would probably enjoy it.

The Laura Line

The Laura Line by Crystal Allen, 328 pages

Laura and her best friend, Sage, are picked on at school because they are overweight.  Laura mostly tries to not let it bother her, but Sage sometimes gets upset because she wants to be popular.  Laura’s parents are going to have to leave for two weeks for Army Reserves training and while Laura is going to miss them, she is excited that her Aunt Carmen is coming to stay with her.  At the last minute, her aunt cancels and Laura is horrified to find out that she is going to stay with her grandmother instead.  On her grandmother’s property is an old slave shack.  The shack embarrasses Laura and she has never been in it.  Then her teacher surprises everyone with a field trip to the shack.  Laura doesn’t want any of her classmates to see the shack and tries to think of ways to get the trip cancelled.  Her teacher makes a deal with her.  If she will go in and the shack and can’t find even one amazing thing then she will cancel the trip.  Laura agrees, sure that there is nothing in the shack that is amazing, but she might be surprised by what she finds about her family, and all of her female ancestors that make up the Laura Line.  A good contemporary story about growing up and being bullied with some interesting historical information thrown in.  A lot of older elementary kids would probably like this story.