Rob&Sara.com [Mass Market Paperback]

P.J. Petersen (Author), Ivy Ruckman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 11, 2006

TO: ALL OUR READERS

From: Rob & Sara

Subject: Our Story

Rob: Don’t worry. I’m weird, but I’m not dangerous. And I won’t send you ads.

Sara: The truth is, I couldn’t bear to go back to the way things were before you read my poem. Maybe it doesn’t matter who you are. . . .

They’ve never met.

They’re hundreds of miles apart.

He won’t tell her his real name.

And they have nothing in common.

Or do they?


From the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 7-10–A favorable chat-room critique of Sara's poem marks the beginning of Rob and Sara's relationship, which develops through e-mails over the course of a school year. Sara, a military brat, longs for a place to call home. Rob attends an exclusive boarding school for problem teens. Letter by letter, the teens build trust and reveal more of the intimate details of their lives. That both are lonely outsiders makes their evolving relationship believable. However, the road to love is never a straight path. The most interesting twist comes when Shannon, a student at Rob's school, e-mails Sara to say that Rob is actually Alex, a boy who is suffering from multiple personality disorder and is suicidal. Readers will fly through the pages until this mystery is resolved. Imprisoned in their respective situations, the teens begin to long for the day when they can meet. It feels like an impossible dream to them, but when Sara is in an accident, Rob masterminds an escape and goes to visit her in the hospital. Unfortunately, she is unconscious, and so the day when they will meet face to face is again delayed. Readers will either be disappointed or hope that a sequel is coming.–Catherine Ensley, Latah County Free Library District, Moscow, ID
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.

From Booklist

Gr. 7-11. Sara meets Rob via e-mail after submitting a poem to a teen poets' bulletin board, and their e-mail friendship twists, turns, and morphs throughout a year. Sara, the good girl of a military family, dares to correspond with a boy. Or is he a man? A troubled teen? A lecher? It's the electronic conundrum of true identity, and the authors realistically exploit this uncertainty. Sara4348 is determined to believe that Robcruise99 is a good guy in spite of the hints he drops and the e-mails from others that call his character into question. Writing entirely in e-mails, Petersen and Ruckman reveal their characters' personalities and life experiences slowly. Who is real? Who is an imposter? Written by authors who live in separate cities and wrote the story one e-mail at a time, the resulting book is a suspenseful experiment. Frances Bradburn
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Laurel Leaf (July 11, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440238730
• ISBN-13: 978-0440238737
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,358,778 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars I was really addicted to this book, November 19, 2005

By 

Bibliophile "Fitzpatrick" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rob&Sara.com (Hardcover)

I was really addicted to this book, until the last two months. It was so interesting and creative until that point and I felt really let down by the ending, it was too quick, too much left unsaid and the whole accident sequence was rushed and out of place. This was a fun read, but I would feel weird recommending though, aside from plot issues, some of the messages of this book were unsettling and not in a provocative manner. I guess my biggest problem was how after reading this young people might feel like they can trust strangers on the internet. As much as I enjoyed this book I would prefer for teens to come across this title on their own and not with my help, just incase.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is great, March 17, 2005

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Rob&Sara.com (Library Binding)

This story lets you peek into a regular teen's life. It is honest and interesting. I enjoyed this book all the way through. I would reccomend it to young adults of course!

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The story of a developing relationship via email, December 10, 2004

By 

Teenreads.com (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rob&Sara.com (Hardcover)

Sara is an army brat, a high achiever who just wants to stay at one high school and be a normal kid for a while. Rob is a loner, a resident of Pine Creek Academy for troubled kids. His dad is distant, and his mom is an alcoholic. Rob and Sara are separated by hundreds of miles. These two seem to have nothing in common except their love for poetry, an appreciation that brings them to a website for teen poets --- and to each other.

When Sara posts a poem she has written, Rob e-mails her his comments, and the two begin a yearlong correspondence via e-mail. Along the way, the two learn lessons about independence, trust, friendship and love, as they "reach out into the cyberfog and grab hands." In addition to learning more about each other, these teens also learn more about themselves, as they gain additional responsibilities during an important year in both of their lives.

ROB&SARA.COM was written in actual e-mails between its authors, P. J. Petersen and Ivy Ruckman. The two took on the personas of their characters and exchanged e-mails for a whole year. The result is two very distinctive voices and two well-developed characters. Although there are points in the novel where the action drags, readers will enjoy seeing Rob and Sara's relationship develop through the course of their online correspondence.

--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl