Customer Reviews

The Notebook Girls: Four Friends, One Diary

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

Because one of the names rang a bell, it was a very easy process to find out a little about one of the author's parents. Her mother is a well-known writer for a political magazine, and her father is a famous weekly opinion columnist for what is often regarded as the best newspaper in the country. He has also won several Emmy awards. They both live in a neighborhood where the average two-bedroom apartment sold at the end of last year for $1,020,600 and was 1,170 square feet.

This should dispell any speculation about how this book was able to make its way into print, and suggest that while many New Yorkers wouldn't blink at paying a million dollars for an apartment, the background of at least one of these young authors is anything but typical for the audience the book is being marketed to. This is not a story from average teens to average teens, is a story of hugely priveleged teens behaving badly and selling a recounting of their experiences to average teens.

This is the implicit takeaway: "You can smoke and drink and fool around and still go to a great school, maybe Princeton, and be a great kid otherwise. Kids do crazy stuff but it's all good because we're sharper than you give us credit for, and we'll grow up anyway and we need to learn for ourselves." If only most kids were that fortunate. Yet there is an unwritten preamble: "If you go to the best public high school in the country and come from an affluent background..."

I, too, attended Stuyvesant, and as you might have suspected, Stuy students have been doing the things written about here for decades, so there is certainly nothing false or revelatory about the contents. In this way, the book is useful as a candid document of what kids at a very selective and elite public school do, in fact, do.

The trouble with the book is that it has no context. The girls who do these things have all gone on to great colleges because Stuy is a college-admissions machine and their parents are in a culture that knows exactly how to play the game. Students like these, largely from established, non-immigrant families, see Stuy as the free alternative to the private school they would have gone to anyway.

There has been related talk about the difference between private and public school kids, but to anyone who knows the class angle at work in selective public schools, it is clear that these authors essentially had a private school experience in a public school. They are simply a world apart form the struggling immigrant children who go to Stuy because it's the best way to a decent life. They are, for example, the children of recent pan-Asian immigrants they apparently never smoked up with, but who make up about 60% of the school. A two bedroom apartment in Sunnyside, Queens, might sell for $175,000.

Most of the adolescents who will take the "be young, take chances, do stupid things" message from this book don't have the ability to do all the drinking and smoking these girls did and still keep their lives together and productive. The stable, safe homes and neighborhoods and parents who create an enviroment where the alcohol and drug use can be buffered and safely managed is just not there for them. For some, getting arrested for buying drugs is the beginning of a downward spiral. For others, it is fodder for a story.

Before the book can be put into perspective, the reader should understand Stuyvesant, New York City, and how this is a special case that does not apply to the average person. That his why, in some ways, the book is troubling. The sad truth is that if you are a poor teen who lives in a Brooklyn tenement and makes the choices these girls made, you might very well die there one day, no different or better than when you started.

This is all apart from the fact that this book is another example of adolescents achieving notoriety and fame by making their private lives a central part of their public personae, as the art in itself. Whether it's for money or attention, it's sort of unsettling to think that achieving success in the publishing world has devolved into the artless practice of being a little naughty and then telling the world about it.

I enjoyed this book for the relatively honest look at four girls' during their first 2 1/2 years at a magnet high school in NYC. Each girl definitely has their own voice, and goes through their own rebellions, own relationships, and deal with their own periods of maturity. You might flinch at the regular sexual teasing they give each other and their mothers, but in general, all are fairly kind and open-minded as each of them grows and changes.

Some highlights include personal discussions of body image, same-sex relationships, and accepting each other's roles in religious groups. The main negative is the weird change in tone towards the end - it begins to sound as if the writing is being watched by the parents who helped them get published. Obviously, we couldn't read all of this if they hadn't had help getting it published, but in the last fifth or so of the book, there is a change in the subject matter: a decrease in the discussion of drugs and sex, and an increase in flowery reflection on their experiences as friends and their difficult experience on 9/11. Even if unintentional, it feels like a parent is encouraging them to write about heart-tugging situations in wrapping their story up, and frowning over the drug content much earlier in the book.

Teens face choices about sex, drugs, body image, and homework every day, so I would still place this book in young-adult. However, keep in mind that as a diary, it isn't (and shouldn't be) held to literary standards of any work of fiction written about high school. Enjoy it for what it is: a diary shared among four girls trying to be cool and be themselves at the same time, and you'll get a lot out of it.

I really enjoyed this funny and down-to-earth high school diary. Contrary to some of the one-star posters, the girls are not jaded debauchees and the world is not coming to an end. The girls' experiences with pot, alcohol and sex are very normal and have been for decades, even in Jesusland . Could these posters be mad that no one gets pregnant, becomes an addict, drops out or finds Christ? To me, these are four intelligent high-spirited kids who took the trouble to write down all the stuff grownups forget -- from gym and the school play to crushes and debating politics and religion with your best friends.
This would be a great gift for teenagers, to show them they are not alone. If it inspires them to keep a diary of their own, so much the better!

While this book has explicit language and controversial topics it is an interesting, important and relevant book on the life teenagers in America.
We think we know what our children are doing but in reality we really have no idea. These Girls are not innocent and don't claim to be however they are good, smart and mature young ladies. On the Today Show in their interview with Katie Curic the girls even said that they don't advocate this behavior but ARE themselves examples of the "average teen".
For any parent who wants to have some idea of what their teen may actually be doing this is the book to read.
For any teen who wants to know that they are not alone in their experiences this is the book to read.
As for the previous review i doubt they actually read this book because if they had they would have known that this "church function" is not true, since she talks about herself as a Jew and being at Jewish activities.

four high school students write their innermost thoughts in a notebook, which then gets sold to Warner Books. talk about an idea that could have gone horribly, horribly awry.

but it doesn't. the book, handwritten by the girls themselves and including photographs, drawings, and quotable quotes, is fun to read, enlightening, and proves that "kids today" know a hell of a lot more than we think they do...

from religion to terrorism to drugs to sex, these girls give readers an important look at the complexity of teens--not to mention their impressive sense of their place in the world.

There are very few times in a boy's life when he feels like people actually get him... which is weird, because this book is about girls. But it's about teenagers mainly. And I'm one. And I love that these girls had the balls to go out there and write something this revealing and honest.
God bless you girls.
<3

My own wild teenage years are still too vivid in my memory for me to actually enjoy this book about what it is really like to be in high school nowadays, but I can say that these four high school gals certainly captured much of what was scary, fun, and unique to those years in my own life.

This book is written by four high school gals who passed around a notebook and took turns sharing in it what was going on in their lives. It is written in their handwriting and includes photos, drawings, and scribbly bits where someone HAD to interject an amusing comment on what someone else had written about.

Lots of intense things happen during this year, and lots of silly things as well. It bothered me how much drug and alcohol use was in their lives, but if I think about my own high school years and what everyone around me was doing, it was frankly pretty similar.

I think high schoolers would enjoy this book, and I also think that parents who don't understand the unique challenges that teens face today might like to read this book. Like I said, it all hit too close to home for me to personally enjoy it, but it is a very innovative idea and was carried out well.

Since it is in the girls' handwriting, it can be hard to read for long stretches or for older eyes. Just a warning!

I am currently reading this book and I find it quite enjoyable. It is very real which is refreshing. I can't say that I think that smoking weed and getting drunk at 15 is very wise but so many teenagers are forced to make that choice that it needed to be brought to the attention of society. I don't think that people who smoke pot are bad, stupid, unintelligent people and you need to get over that before you read this book.
I come from a very rural school and I am not the type of person to get involved with drugs/alcohol so personaly its always shocking reading about people who use drugs. I'm still trying to get over sterotypes I hold about people who use drugs.

All is all this book is good. Its funny and sweet and makes you think about issues teens have to face. Read it with your teenager (you might have to get two copies) and talk about the issues these girls faced. Chances are your son/daughter will use (though they might not admit it) or know people who use drugs.

P.S. Try not to be judgemental!!!

As I read this book I found myself with a bunch of almost random thoughts, and I'm going to put them down here in no particular order.

As a hobby I run a small community theater. When we announce a play I am invariably asked if it is suitable for high school kids. I've never known how to answer. As this book clearly proves, the kids have all heard and said the famous 'F' word. But does this mommy (or daddy) want to admit it. If it's said by an actor, what does the kid think? What does the parent think? Would it be OK for each of them if they were by themselves but embarassing if they were together?

I remember Martin Luther Kings 'I Have a Dream' speech where he said his dream was that 'little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and while girls and walk togeather as sisters and brothers.' Of the young authors of this book, one appears to be black, the others white, and no big deal is made of it. Dr. King's dream seems to have come to pass, at least here with these kids.

I don't think that growing up has ever been easy. Certainly not as easy as we parents think it should be. I'm glad that these kids made it through high school, their experiments with sex, drugs, and alcohol formed part of their personality. Now they are all off to college. I think they all have survived what New York City could throw at them. They will do well in their future lives.

Do I recommend this book. Yes. To parents, yes, it will give you some idea of what your kids are really going through. To kids, yes, it will let them know that they are not alone in experiencing their own problems. And while New York is different, here in small town Nevada we have drugs, underage drinking, teen pregnancies. New York may be different, but the people are about the same.

First of all, this book is good. Generally speaking, I would have only read this when I was around 14 (I'm 18 now), I'm actually friends with one of the writers. This book was written when they were 14. You really can't expect literary genius from 14 and 15 year olds, and if you do, you're going to be sorely disappointed. These "notebooks" were a common occurence in middle and high school for my generation, and this particular one is typical of their contents.

You have to understand, these girls never actually intended to publish these. No one ever actually intends to publish them. And as for their parents' approval of this book...the claim that their parents are irresponsible is erroneous and specious. The girls are now of legal age and are able to decide for themselves. Furthermore, these girls attend some of the most prestigious universities in the country right now, based on their own merit.

This book is an insight into the lives of these girls. Not necessarily a microcosm of our generation's lives, but it contains the same general ideas and topics that we all dealt with and still deal with to this day. Take it or leave it, it is what it is.