Anything But Ordinary [Hardcover]

Valerie Hobbs (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 20, 2007

From the moment their romance begins in eighth grade, Winifred and Bernie are individualists. They pride themselves on being different, and have each other for support through the tough years of high school. So when they consider college, they send off for the same catalogs, promising never to separate.
 
But Bernie's mother dies and Bernie more or less drops out of school, becoming an ordinary guy working away in a tire shop, while Winifred goes about as far from New Jersey as a girl can go: the University of California at Santa Barbara. College is a culture shock to Winifred, but her three savvy roommates teach her how to fit in. By the time Bernie catches up with her again, Winifred has become, well . . . ordinary. Can they rediscover their true selves - and true love?
 
Told from alternating viewpoints, with a sense of humor and a deep appreciation of first love, Valerie Hobbs's novel captures an endearing young couple's search for independence and identity.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 9 Up—Winifred and Bernie, both quirky and unpopular, meet in eighth grade in New Jersey, become best friends, and later begin to date. Poised to graduate at the top of their class and head to college together, the couple's plans are derailed by the death of Bernie's mother. Grief-stricken, Bernie lets his grades slip and decides to forego college. Winifred chooses UC Santa Barbara, where she quickly abandons her unique identity; becomes Wini; switches majors from nanoscience to communications; and passes her days chasing boys, shopping, and drinking lattes. Convinced that she needs him, Bernie drives across the country only to be essentially ditched upon arrival. Nevertheless he stays and carves out a humble existence, sleeping in the library, sitting in on lectures, and almost being seduced by a graduate student. Told in alternating viewpoints, the novel explores the different paths that can be taken, both by college students and the so-called slackers who do not begin their education the traditional way. Though Wini is quick to pass judgment on Bernie's choice of the La-Z-Boy life, he exceeds the expectations placed on him and chooses a more interesting path. The teens' actions and world are contemporary and very real. Readers curious about the adventures awaiting them in college will enjoy this well-written, believable story of the first year in college. By the end, they'll be anxious to learn the outcome of Bernie and Winifred's reunion and they won't be disappointed.—Jennifer Barnes, Homewood Library, IL
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Best friends since middle school, where their geeky outsider status threw them together, Winifred Owens and Bernie Federman expect to go off to college together. But after his mother dies, Bernie's life falls apart, and he stays home to work in his dad's repair shop while Winifred goes across country to school in Santa Barbara. Thrown into a room with three party girls, she decides to fit in, changing her look and her outlook so drastically that Bernie barely recognizes her. This makes for a love story that is anything but ordinary. It captures the headiness of college life, the thrill of intellectual discovery, and the ups and downs of first love (though no actual sex). Told in the third person with alternating focus, the story's suspense mounts: Will the twosome ever get back together? Should they? Bernie, who notices telling details, is a believable writer-to-be. Caught up in the whirl of her roommates' enthusiasm for making her over, Winifred's metamorphosis into social butterfly is completely plausible. Warm and satisfying. Kathleen Isaacs
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR); First Edition edition (February 20, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374303746
• ISBN-13: 978-0374303747
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,495,996 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

What I've learned in all the years since I began writing is that each of us has at least one special story to tell. Some stories are sad, some funny, but all are as unique as our fingerprints. We are storytellers, every one of us. Some of us just have to write those stories down. I didn't always want to be a writer though. What I longed for most was to be an ice skater, but when I was fifteen I moved with my family from New Jersey to California and there went the ice.

My first short story began with a journal entry written when I was nineteen, after a close friend of mine met with a tragic accident. Many years later, that same story became the basis for my first novel, How Far Would You Have Gotten If I Hadn't Called You Back . Eight novels have followed, with three more to come in the next few years. Writing is the hardest work I've ever done, but by far the most fun.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Courtesy of Teens Read Too, April 4, 2007

By 

TeensReadToo "Eat. Drink. Read. Be Merrier." (All Over the US & Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Anything But Ordinary (Hardcover)

Winifred and Bernie have been best friends, and yes, in love, since middle school. Both were a little different and found fitting in difficult. Their friendship began with Winifred's creation of the Green Hat Club, and then it blossomed.

High school brought an even closer relationship. Winifred and Bernie were excellent students and hoped to place first and second in their graduating class. They studied together, lunched together, and basically spent every waking moment together. Romance became part of the friendship when they shared a first kiss, then a second, a third, etc. Although the physical side of their relationship advanced, both agreed that they would wait until marriage for the final act.

During senior year the hunt for colleges began. They agreed to find a place that would suit them both. Bernie's father worked in a tire shop which made money an obstacle. Winifred searched for a school that would recognize Bernie's academic achievement with a scholarship. All was going as planned until Bernie's mother returned one day from the doctor's with the news that she had ovarian cancer. She was gone in just a few months.

Life for Bernie and Winifred began to change. Winifred set off for California, and Bernie stayed in New Jersey. Headed in different directions for the first time, could their love and friendship remain strong?

ANYTHING BUT ORDINARY is the story of whether or not relationships can endure when faced with individual growth and change. Valerie Hobbs presents Winifred and Bernie in her simple, straight-forward prose. They are regular people living regular lives, but as the title suggests -"anything but ordinary." Readers hear the story from both perspectives and will come to know and care for both Winifred and Bernie.

Reviewed by: Sally Kruger, aka "Readingjunky"