Customer Reviews

Izzy, Willy-Nilly

5 star:		(52)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

Izzy, Willy-Nilly is a good, thought-provoking book directed to high school students. It deals with issues that teenagers face everyday, including drunk-driving, friendship, and indifference. Izzy, Willy-Nilly is about a sophomore in high school, Izzy, who accepts a date with a senior, Marco. They go to a party and Marco drinks too much. On the drive home, they crash into a tree. Although Marco recieves minor injuries, Izzy loses a leg, and her life is changed forever. At 15, Izzy was the pretty, popular cheerleader from a rich family, but the accident changes everything. Her friends and family start treating her differently, and everywhere she goes people stare at her. She is no longer the once popular cheerleader, but the object of everyone's pity. Through hard work and perseverence, Izzy learns to cope and adjust to her disability. This book is definitely for every high school student to read. I could relate to many of the issues discussed in this book. This book totally made me think about how lucky I am to be healthy and fit.

Teenager Isobel "Izzy" Lingard has lost part of her leg in an accident and is faced with the daunting task of reassembling her life. Before the accident, she was known as a pretty and semi-popular cheerleader, along with her three friends. None of them imagined anything would ever change. But when Izzy accepted a date with Marcus, a handsome senior, and then drove home with him after he'd been drinking, her life changed forever. Now her friends are uncomfortable around her and spend less and less time visiting the hospital. Instead, Rosamunde, an intelligent, eccentric girl her age and someone she's always considered a weird outcast, begins to visit. Rosamunde's world view is drastically different from anything Izzy has considered before, and she helps Izzy free herself of self-pity and blame. Eventually the two girls become friends. With the help of Rosamunde and her family, Izzy begins to heal.

This novel is about a young girl named Isobelle Lingard, "Izzy", who must pay consequences for a choice she makes. Izzy is a cheerleader and very popular amongst her school. However, her life changes after she suffers severe injuries in a car crash caused by a drunk driver. It takes a girl, Rosamunde, to make Izzy accept what has happened to her. Rosamunde will not let Izzy feel different from anyone else and will not let her be pitied. Izzy comes to know what her real friends are like and she makes a great friend. Because of Rosamunde, Izzy was given the courage to return to school and face her friends and peers that she was once afraid and embarrassed to be seen by. She was afraid of being different and not looking as pretty as everyone pictures her to be. The author wrote this book sending out a message of what can happen with drinking and driving. It is a great message that should be sent out especially to teen-agers. We are forced to pay consequences of our own actions. The author uses literary devices such as foreshadowing and symbolism. The author's overall theme is to be careful of the decisions we make. Our actions can not only affect ourselves, but also the people we are surrounded by. Drinking and driving is a major problem that people are faced with today. Hopefully reading this book will make teenagers, as well as adults, realize that our stupidity can hurt the ones we love most.

I read this book for the first time in my twenties and absolutely adored it. It's real and true, a morality tale, but also a story about living with disability.

The best part of this book is its honesty. The characters all ring true, human, flawed and real, almost as if drawn from the authors own family. In particular, the issue of disability is depicted very truly, for which any voracious reader is eternally grateful because disability is so rarely described with any truth in fiction.

There are no easy or pat answers about disability, but there is a glowing portrayal of human survival and growth. Izzy makes you laugh and cry, but mostly she makes you want to stand and applaud. This book is truly a must read. One of my all time favorites.

I read this book as a summer reading assignment, and I was totally amazed at how good it was. It is about this high school girl named Izzy who is involved in a drunk driving crash caused by a senior named Marco. Izzy's lower right leg is brutally injured and she is forced to have it amputated. She feels really depressed, and her friends don't seem to want to visit her. Then this girl named Rosamunde who isn't as popular as Izzy comes by to visit often and they become friends. Rosamunde, who is a very straight-forward person with a unique sense of humor, helps Izzy get back on her feet and cope with her disability. I highly recommend this book to anyone, even if you don't like to read. I enjoyed it very much.

still a good book. Does anyone know why the author choose that title? Anyhoo, this book is about a 15 year old named Isobel that has a perfect life, but then one day her world is turned upside down after getting in the car with a drunk driver. The driver, her teen date Marco, crashes into a tree which injures Isobel and causes her to have her leg removed. Marco never apologizes for what he did, which ticked me off to you know where. I wish there was a sequel to this book so you could see Marco get punished and a bit of justice done for Isobel and her family. This book is pretty depressing, definitely not for a kid under 13, but is a great story about how bad things can happen to nice people and how breaking the law never pays. It is also about discovering whom your real friends are and learning not to judge people simply by their outward appearance. This would be a great book I think for high school freshman to read.

Couldn't Stop Reading It!!!, October 25,2004

This book was very good, I couldn't put it down. After reading the first few pages I was hooked. I actully read every night for a change, even on weekends.

This book is about a girl, Izyy (Isobel) Langard, who is asked out to a party by a senior, Marco. At this party drinking is going on and Marco gets wasted. On the way home to drop Izzy off Marco crashes them into an elm tree. Marco doesn't get hurt at all, but Izzy on the other hand had to get her left leg amputated just below the knee. Through out the book Izzy has to learn to deal with life without her left leg.

I recommend this book for people from grades 6th to 8th. I liked this book because it kept me interested and it taught a valuable lesson. Don't drink and drive and don't drive with people who are drunk. On a scale from 1-10 I give Izzy, Willy Nilly a 9. Although it is a good book I wish there would have been a little more detail to the ending.

As a high school and middle school English teacher, I have read lots and lots of books for young people. I seem to have read a lot of novels lately about teens who become injured or disabled or ill in some way -- it is a difficult genre to write well without being overly sentimental or unrealistic. Izzy, Willy-Nilly is the best book of this type I have read. I didn't want to put it down, and after reading it, I wanted to read everything Voigt had ever written.

I think this was a good book. I think this because it shows the concequences of drinking and driving. Also not to rush to get older because the older you get the more responsibility you have. Having responsibility isnt always fun. People expect a lot more of you and it is a little stress full. In this book Izzy gets into a car accident after a party. She begs her mom to go out to this party with an older guy Marcus. She thinks this would be cool, you know her going out with an older guy. She thought that it would make her friends jealous that she was the one that got to go with an older guy. Izzy was the quite one of them. When she goes to this party she finds out that it isnt really that cool. The next time she wakes up she is in the hospital. She doesnt remember why though. She find out later in the book that she is disabled and tries not to show how much it really does hurt. Every day is harder for her though, because she realizes that nothing will ever be the same. Izzy doesn't want to realize that she is not going to be able to do the things that she used to do anymore. This really bothers her but she doesn't show it because she comes from a family who thinks that you need to be strong all the time. When she hurts the most she wont let it show.
I really liked this book. I liked it because it showed the meaning of friendship. For example, her friends now how much pain she is in and call her in the hospital and go visit her. Even though seeing her like this scares them they are still there for her through it all.As you can see this was a really good book and I would recommend anyone to read it.

Izzy, Willy-Nilly is a compelling novel describing the life of a young girl after a horrible car accident. The misfortune leaves the girl crippled for life. The young man driving the car was driving under the influence of alcohol. Shortly after the accident her leg is amputated and her whole life is flipped up side down. Izzy has to learn that now she has to be more dependent on other people and can't be as self-efficient. Izzy has to cope with this dramatic change in her life style. I loved this story and the characters that you grow to know so well. At points this book can become sad and depressing because you can just imagine how this young and popular girl feels with this life changing accident. It makes you really think and realize how lucky you really are. It shows you how dangerous alcohol is and how it can affect other people's lives.
I have very few dislikes about the novel. One is that it can get kind of long in the middle and depressing when she is in the hospital. It is not a very up lifting book, the family in this story tries to hide their feelings from each other and the rest of the world. You realize that it is easier to tell your feelings to someone instead of keeping them all locked up inside of you. I would really recommend this book to any teenager that loves to read. It made you think what you would do if you were ever in that situation. It was a very fascinating novel and I learned a lot from it.