Boys, Girls and Other Hazardous Materials [Hardcover]

Rosalind Wiseman (Author)

Book Description

Release date: January 12, 2010

Looking for a new beginning after a terrible mean girl past, Charlie Healey realizes there’s no escaping high school drama.

Charlie Healey thinks Harmony Falls is the beginning of a whole new life. Middle school was brutal. But high school is Charlie’s big chance to start over and stay out of drama, except that on her first day she runs into Will, her ex–best friend, who had moved away. Now a varsity athlete and hotter than Charlie remembered, Will hangs with the crowd running the school. But Charlie doesn’t understand their power until an innocent delivery guy falls victim to a near-deadly hazing prank.

Torn between doing what’s right and her secret feelings for Will, Charlie must decide whether to turn in her very best friend or live with the guilt of knowing what he did.

Rosalind Wiseman’s first novel for young adults is a fresh, funny, and juicy read about friendship, betrayal, and how far some will go to be accepted.

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Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 8–11—Attempting to avoid vicious, former "frenemies" (and their influence), Charlotte Healey starts her high school career in neighboring Harmony Falls, hoping for a clean slate. Things look promising when she makes friends the first day and awkwardly reunites, after three years, with ex-best friend/boy-next-door-turned-crush Will. Unfortunately, people from Charlie's past keep turning up, like Nidhi, former target of the nasty kids at her old school. Charlie and Nidhi reconcile and score a column in the school paper on the freshman experience. Trying to find romance and their niche in the social hierarchy, Charlie and company survive the familiar highs and lows of high school and friendship in a place where traditions, both exclusionary and dangerous, reign. Charlie learns that both sexes are equally capable of cruelty, manipulation, and susceptibility to social pressure, but she's no longer one to keep quiet when the bullies and their enablers need to be taken to task. Wiseman's fiction debut has recognizable situations and archetypes, though Harmony Falls's students and authority figures sometimes come off as stock, superficial, or stereotypical. Fortunately, Charlie proves a flawed, humorous, and perceptive narrator as she matures, standing up for herself and others. There is occasional swearing, some forced dialogue (heavy on the exclamations), and a discussion-worthy ending. While high school can seem "life and death" dramatic, Wiseman reveals the nasty business of bullying and the ugly (sometimes life-threatening) turns that questing for acceptance can take.—Danielle Serra, Cliffside Park Public Library, NJ
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From Booklist

Wiseman’s best-selling nonfiction title for adults, Queen Bees and Wannabees: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends, and Other Realities of Adolescence (2002), inspired the movie Mean Girls, but in her first novel for young adults, it’s the guys who behave badly. Charlie can’t wait to leave her middle-school “frenemies” behind and start high school, where she hopes to make “cool, interesting, nonevil, nonvindictive friends.” Her wish is granted on her first day, when she meets smart, supportive Sydney and reconnects with Nidhi, who shared Charlie’s eighth-grade misery. Soon, the inseparable trio widens to include some guys, whose involvement in a disturbing hazing incident sets off a chain of moral dilemmas. Charlie’s narration—filled with IMs and texts—sets a breezy tone and includes some occasional four-letter frankness: “Chicks before Dicks,” declares Sydney. “Never choose a guy over a friend.” But in her realistic portrayal of everyday freshman anxieties, romance, and the sometimes “toolish” culture of male high-school athletes, Wiseman prompts readers to consider vital questions about authentic friendship, personal responsibility, and the slippery roles of bully, bystander, and victim. Grades 7-10. --Gillian Engberg

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Product Details

• Age Range: 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Putnam; 1 edition (January 12, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399247963
• ISBN-13: 978-0399247965
• Product Dimensions: 5.7 x 1.1 x 8.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #440,004 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Rosalind Wiseman is an internationally recognized expert on children, teens, parenting, bullying, social justice, and ethical leadership.

Wiseman is the author of Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends, and Other Realities of Adolescence (Crown, 2002). Twice a New York Times Bestseller, Queen Bees & Wannabes was the basis for the 2004 movie Mean Girls. In fall 2009, an updated edition of Queen Bees & Wannabes will be republished with a chapter on younger girls, insights on how technology has impacted kids' social landscapes, and new commentary from girls and boys. Her follow???up book Queen Bee Moms and Kingpin Dads was released in 2006, and she is a monthly columnist for Family Circle magazine.

Additional publications include the Owning Up Curriculum, a comprehensive social justice program for grades 6???12, and a forthcoming young adult novel, Boys, Girls, and Other Hazardous Materials, in stores in January 2010.

Since founding the Empower Program, a national violence???prevention program, in 1992, Wiseman has gone on to work with tens of thousands of students, educators, parents, counselors, coaches, and administrators to create communities based on the belief that each person has a responsibility to treat themselves and others with dignity. Audiences have included the American School Counselors Association, Capital One, National Education Association, Girl Scouts, Neutrogena, Young Presidents Association, Independent School Associations and the International Chiefs of Police, as well as countless schools throughout the U.S. and abroad.

National media regularly depends on Wiseman as the expert on ethical leadership, media literacy, bullying prevention, and school violence. She is a frequent guest on the Today Show and been profiled in The New York Times, People, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, USA Today, Oprah, Nightline, CNN, Good Morning America, and National Public Radio affiliates throughout the country.

Wiseman holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Occidental College. She lives in Washington D.C. with her husband and two sons.

For more information visit rosalindwiseman.com.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Mixed feelings about this novel February 6, 2010

By Guinevere R. Rowell

Format:Hardcover

I've had a hard time sussing out my feelings after finishing this book, so I wrote a pro and con list of what I liked and disliked:

Con's:
-Characterization of the "bad boys" was terrible. We know who is a good guy and a bad guy as soon as Wiseman introduces them, because the bad guys have "small slitty eyes and pink skin" or use offensive words to refer to others. While I find those terms really offensive, I also think this was a silly tool for characterization -- teenagers sometimes use inappropriate terms, and that doesn't automatically mean they're an irredeemable waste of space. To me, this was just a shortcut to suss out who the reader should disapprove of, and I don't think Wiseman's readers need the help.

-Charlie was lame. One of her friends, Sydney, is sexually harassed by some of the guys, and when Sydney publicly humiliates him in return, Charlie tells her friend that she's gone too far and become like him. Yeah. Having been sexually harassed in HS, I think Sydney was in the right -- but Charlie felt like the the mouthpiece of an educator about bullying. Charlie's unbelievable POV made me struggle to keep reading.

-Plotting. The synopsis isn't, in my opinion, what this book is really about. The bulk of it chronicles Charlie's freshman year of school, and the prank mentioned above doesn't happen until page 216 (of 279). I felt that the story dragged in places.

Pro's:
-Loved the secondary characters of Charlie's friends, Sydney and Nidhi. It was wonderful to read about girls being genuine friends as opposed to frenemies, even though Charlie certainly had some frenemies in her past.

-Unique depiction of high school.... There are some untrustworthy adults and some very wise ones in this novel; the bulk of educators seem helpful and genuinely caring. While there are some unsavory elements to the school, overall, it seems like a pretty decent place. I liked that this high school wasn't the stuff of nightmares one sometimes reads about in YA novels.

-Realistic depiction of sexual harassment in HS. It's never named as such in the book, but without a doubt in my mind, a bunch of guys hassling a girl because she turned one of them down is classic sexual harassment (it's not just for the workplace anymore). I think it's realistic, anyway, because it mirrors my experience -- little torments that add up to misery, and adults that deny what's happening (in the book, Sydney is told that she should take the unkind attention as a compliment; for me, I was told, "Don't you think you brought this on yourself, by dating around the way you have?"). While it's not the focus of the book, I liked that this was addressed.

-Satisfying ending; happy, but not overpoweringly so. There's a note of conflict in the ending, but wrongs have been righted and love has been satisfied. What can I say? I love a happy ending.

I don't think this is a bad novel, at all, but I do think that some more attention to the elements I identified as cons would have made for a more powerful work. Read more ›

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A librarian's review January 12, 2010

By Della Phipps

Format:Hardcover

Boys, Girls, and other Hazardous Materials by Rosalind Wiseman.

I really enjoyed this book, although it brought back some of my own memories about school I'd have rather not remembered. Ms. Wiseman weaves a familiar and believable tale of a high school freshman as she attends a new school. The reader always knows what Charlie, the main character, is thinking and the secondary characters are also well developed. The relationships Charlie has with the others in the book are easy to follow. At times, it is hard to pick out the "good guy," but this is not unusual in a real setting. Ms. Wiseman does not shy away from the issues surrounding our schools today, such as hazing, drinking, bullying, racism, and adults who are focused on things other than the well being of their students.

There are parts of the book that seemed predictable, but the author does a good job of throwing the reader curve balls just when the plot is starting to slow. This book doesn't make the mistake of focusing too much on the adults in the story, but only mentions them when the main characters are in direct contact with them. It is written in the first person and that makes it easy to follow and get wrapped up in; this is one of those books that once you start reading it, you get pulled in and don't want to stop until you see how it is going to end. This is an excellent book for girls who are reluctant readers, or for those who want a quick and enjoyable read. Charlie's voice is fresh and strong, and her character grows throughout the book as she deals with problem after problem. By the end of the book, Charlie doesn't know who to trust, but everything gets resolved, and everyone is happy, except for the bad guys.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Not The Greatest Book Out There January 17, 2010

By Lauren's Crammed Bookshelf

Format:Hardcover

I really wanted to love this novel. I mean Rosalind's Queen Bees and Wannabes was the inspiration behind one of my favorite movies ever Mean Girls. Though, sadly I wasn't starstruck by this novel. Quite the opposite, actually, because I was easily bored by the lackluster and predictable plot that at times seemed like the cliché of all clichés meets an after school special.

The characters were just a total blah. Charlie was the typical "I used to be a follower of the poplars, but now I want to be a leader" type of girl and her love interest was someone who seriously needed to grow a pair and stop acting like an idiot because of peer pressure. Though, if that wasn't enough things to add to my dismay, I hated how these two characters could have been so original and awesome but were instead ran over by unoriginality.

As mentioned above, the plot was the same way. Something that while could have been awesomely amazing was just boring and didn't truly bring anything new to the table. Leaving me to think this novel is going to be run down by all the other incredible upcoming 2010 books like Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers.

Though, I did like some aspects of this novel. Such as some of the secondary characters like Michael, Sydney and Nidha who were funny. Also, the message in this one is something that should always be reiterated simply because of how important it is to not fall into peer pressure and instead become someone who can almost always do the right thing.

In all, while I do see talent in Rosalind ( Seriously, her webiste is awesome because of the fact that she offers advice that a lot of girls (and boys even) could relate too!) , I felt that this novel failed to show it as well as it could have....

Though, as always my review is just one in a million, so if you feel like this is something you would enjoy check it out. I mean others have loved it, just not me unfourantely. Read more ›