From School Library Journal
Starred Review. Grade 9 Up—A side-splitting slice of male adolescence, this novel turns the spotlight on the ridiculousness that is the average, contemporary American high school experience, much as Stephen Chbosky's
The Perks of Being a Wallflower (MTV, 1999) did a decade ago, but with funnier results. Scrawny and slightly naive 17-year-old Mitchell's best friend comes out to him at lunch in the cafeteria, his younger sister railroads his not-so-social social life, he turns in a sort-of pornographic claymation film in lieu of an English paper, and somehow he finds popular Danielle encouraging him to go up her shirt. The plot takes a backseat to gems of dialogue ("virginity…. Keeps your wrist muscles supple") and inner voice ("I imagine every student in my English class. If I only have erections for the females, I'm straight. It's really the only way to tell"). Combined with gags about the school administration, it all adds up to a story that's so funny and yet so realistic. As in most high schools, there is a lot of talk about beer, butts, and banging, but in his blasé cluelessness, Mitchell analyzes rather than glorifies such things (e.g., the make-out scene where he can't figure out where to put his hands). Readers should be prepared to laugh a lot, and to say "aw" at the tender resolution. A must-have for fiction collections.—
Rhona Campbell, Washington, DC Public Library Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
About the Author
Steven Goldman lives in Boston, Massachusetts with his wife and two sons. Two Parties, One Tux, and a Very Short Film about The Grapes of Wrath is his first young adult novel. He has never read The Grapes of Wrath.
