Customer Reviews

Mates, Dates, and Mad Mistakes

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Mates, Dates series rotates among four friends: Lucy, Izzie, Nesta and TJ. This time it's Izzie's turn, and the British four are getting ready to enjoy the last of summer before Year Ten begins. They decide to symbolize their friendship with a navel piercing --- but some chicken out and then Izzie's Mom finds out and makes her take it off. She even reads Izzie's diary --- why can't she just understand that Izzie needs her space to experiment?

New hottie on the scene Josh helps Izzie experiment with drinking, smoking various substances, late night escapes and some serious making out. His friend Spider is seriously creepy, too, and embarrasses Izzie at her band's gig. Her friends begin to avoid her, and suddenly Izzie is way past her comfort level.

This latest installment in the popular Mates, Dates series reminds readers where some seemingly harmless mistakes could lead. Everyone can relate to falling for the wrong person when growing up. While British stories and friend quartets seem to be everywhere in teen girl fiction these days, this series manages to keep it real with issues to accompany the fun, light reading.

(...)

As i bookseller with specialty in kids and teens, I must really give this series the "thumbs up"!

They are great "light reading", but with substantial contents for their target group. A series with all the right messages - trust in yourself, value your good friendships, be your own person, don't succumb to group pressure etc. BUT they are not annoyingly politically correct, and they are written in a way that will appeal to most age 11-14 girls.
They deal with friendships, first loves, puberty, parents, siblings, school and issues like 'what am I good at' and 'what do I want to be professionally' etc.
The first 6 books are narrated by 4 different girls (who are all friends), which gives a good insight to how different girls in a group see, react towards and percieve the various situations and issues.

Reading "guidelines":
The first five books are good from age 11 and up, from book six the girls mature somewhat and, depending on the individual of course, readers should be a year or two older.

Izzie is back in this sixth volume of the series. The girls are on break and getting ready to return to school at a new level (10th). The new level brings thoughts of growing up and maturity.

As Izzie wants more responsibility, she shows it in a very odd way. She becomes a rebel and rather untrustworthy as she becomes unable to easily handle a more-adult world.

Drinking, drugs and body piercing become Izzie's new pastimes as well as a new boy named Josh. Tempers flare between her and her mother as she gets more out of control. But in the end all is well and Izzie is able to turn her back on her evil ways.

This is the oddest story in the series so far. While Izzie faces some very real issues in this story, her sudden reversal at the end is rather unbelievable. It is also typical that the girls are close mates except when boys are concerned. Once a boy enters the picture one will never believe the others about him.

i think that it was a good story but could have used a little more unexpected surprises. overall the talking about teenage subjects was effective although it was slightly sugarcoated.

~Maddie W

Mates, Dates, and MAd Mistakes kind of disappointed me because it ended where I think it should of begun. I love all of the other Mates/Dates books though. THis last last book also seemed to not really have a main idea. It talked about things from here, there, and everywhere. This is why I think Mates, Dates, and Mad Mistakes deserves 3 stars.

I loved this book. I was really surprised at all the things that Izzie was getting into. This was unlike the characters we first fell in love with. But it s does make sense. Izzie wanted to seem more grown up and she thought by trying new things she could do this. I feel that this is a coming of age story that all teens should read! its a great lesson to be learned.

This is the sixth book in this series and it is about Izzie. In this book, she meets a boy in the park, Josh, and he is a bad influence, he does drugs, smokes and drinks. Izzie thinks nothing of it and does it too, even though she doesnt like the feeling of any of it. She starts getting into fights with her mom because of it and gets into lots of trouble and her friends start worring about her. Read this series, its really good!!!

I love this whole series! This book was good because you could see another side of Izzie. She was faced with some tough decisions that made the book all the more realistic. Teenage girls can really relate to the girls in this book and the decisions they have to make. These books have a good lesson in the end as well. Have some fun and read all the books in the Mates, Dates Series!

I enjoyed this novel for the most part but I've got to admit that it wasn't my favorite of Cathy Hopkins's books. It had an interesting premise and moved at a good pace but it just felt a little lackluster for some reason. (I definitely can relate to Izzie though.) In the end, there was too much preaching and philosphizing. Authors need to learn that sending a message about drugs, alcohol and sex to teenagers is best done sublty. Over all the book was pretty good.

I love the books in the Mates, Dates, and...series, but the last two have seemed a little bit desperate. Cathy Hopkins is a good author, but it seems like this series is about to end. MATES, DATES, AND MAD MISTAKES is cute, but nothing special.

Izzie feels a little different from the rest of her friends - she wants to try more wild and crazy things (like drinking and getting her belly-button pierced without parental consent), but she's still the same fun character. When Izzie starts testing her limits, though, she starts to get into trouble. She's met this guy, Josh, and he's encouraging her to do a ton of things she wouldn't normally do. Her friends (and parents) recognize that she's fallen into a downward spiral, but they can't do anything to change her mind.

MATES, DATES, AND MAD MISTAKES is one of the more serious books, with Izzie getting into drinking, smoking, drugs, and lying to her mom and stepdad. I wouldn't say the book is bad, but for all the problems that Izzie faces, the ending was too sugarcoated. Also, I miss the Izzie from the older books - the one that was into all the astrology, tarot cards, etc. In MATES, DATES, AND MAD MISTAKES, Izzie barely even mentions any of the things she loved in the first books.

I'd recommend getting it from the library, but I wouldn't buy it.

Overall grade - C