How I Survived Being a Girl (Harper Trophy) [Paperback]

Wendelin Van Draanen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1998 | Age Level: 8 and up | Grade Level: 3 and up | Series: Harper Trophy

No one ever said being a gift was easy -- especially when you're stuck with two brothers. So Carolyn has learned a thing or two about how to survive. She keeps her hair too short for ribbons. She wears boys' clothes whenever possible. And she avoids being seen with gifts who wear Mary Janes -- at all costs. But lately things are changing, and Carolyn's techniques don't seem to be working anymore. Can she figure out how to be a girl -- without losing track of who she really is?

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Tomboy Carolyn is thrown for a loop when she hits puberty, in this "sunny, funny look at a girl with a smart mouth and scabby knees," said PW. Ages 8-12.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Van Draanen's first book has a crackling pace, funny lines, and an iron-willed heroine with a knack for putting herself in the center of all the action. Sixth-grader Carolyn doesn't act like a girl, and doesn't look much like one either, clad in boys clothing and wearing her hair very short. She likes to spy on the neighbors with her two brothers, play stickball, and dig foxholes in the backyard. Of girls who play with dolls and wear too much lace, she has low opinions, and hardly counts herself in the girl camp at all until some unfamiliar feelings surface for her stickball buddy, Charlie. When her baby sister, Nancy, is born, Carolyn decides that being a girl is really okay, now that she has an ally in the family. The era in which the story takes place is never specified, and while Carolyn's voice is contemporary, some of the problems she faces are dated, e.g., having to wear a dress to school and being unable to have her own paper route because she is a girl. Regardless, her irreverent narration is engaging and she's refreshingly astute about family and neighborhood dynamics. Blithely entertaining. (Fiction. 8-11) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. 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 8 and up
  
• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers (August 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 006440725X
• ISBN-13: 978-0064407250
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,107,052 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

"Through writing, I open up my heart and soul in ways I never could in everyday life. The joy, the pain, the wonder and loneliness I felt in growing up, meld into stories which I hope will help kids believe in themselves and have compassion for those around them."--Wendelin Van Draanen

Wendelin Van Draanen is the winner of the 1999 Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Children's Mystery Book for Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief. Sammy Keyes and the Search for Snake Eyes is a 2003 Edgar Award nominee.


Visit Wendelin Van Draanen's Web site at www.wendelinvandraanen.com for the lastest on The Gecko and Sticky, Sammy Keyes, Shredderman, and more!

How in the world did I wind up writing a book about a kleptomaniacal, talking gecko lizard? I'm the first to admit-talking animals are not my thing. First person, realistic fiction-that's what I like. And yet, after Sticky appeared as a sidekick television character in my Shredderman series and uttered his first "Holy guaco-tacarole!" I was hooked. He's so funny. And so full of mischief.
I always develop a backstory for my characters to get to know them. Even if they're secondary characters, I have to understand their background and motivations before I let them into the story. The premise of the third Shredderman book (Meet the Gecko) is that a television crew comes to town to shoot an episode, and Shredderman helps out the star of the show. Not wanting to deal with the legal complications of using a real television show, I made up my own: The Gecko and Sticky. In the process, I came up with the hero (Dave Sanchez-a boy who has the "superpower" of being able to walk up walls, and is known as the Gecko), the sidekick (Sticky who is, as you already know, a talking gecko with . . . h'hem, sticky fingers), the villain (the deadly, diabolical, and definitely demented Damien Black), and Damien's sidekicks (the Bandito Brothers, who are, in fact, not brothers, but a thieving mariachi band).
It was definitely wilder than anything I'd come up with before, but hey-it was just a made-up TV show, right?
Ah, how diabolically infectious made-up TV shows can be!
Sticky, you see, got under my skin. His "Ay-ay-ay"s and his "What the jalapeno was that?" and his "You cut me to the quick, senor" enchanted me, and I was sorry when his role in the Shredderman books was over.
After the Shredderman quartet was complete, I began getting lots of fan mail from kids (and teachers) asking me to please write more Shredderman books. It was tempting, because I love Nolan and the gang. But I'd completed my mission with the quartet; so instead, I started writing The Gecko and Sticky.
My first attempt resulted in an over 200-page manuscript. That was closer to a Sammy Keyes novel than a Shredderman book. So I hacked it up, threw it out, and started all over.
My next try had me at 150 pages-still too long, and something about it wasn't quite right. So I chucked it and asked myself what in the world I was thinking, writing in the voice of a lizard.
But then on a flight from New York to California, I started hearing a voice. It wasn't my voice. Or the guy snoring in the seat beside me. It was, you know, a voice. One in my head.
Yeah, we writers hear them, and although we will almost certainly deny it if you press us about it, we also listen. It's how I wrote Swear to Howdy; how Bryce appeared in Flipped; where Holly's poems came from in Runaway . . . and it's how the narrator took over the storytelling for The Gecko and Sticky.
It's a man's voice in my head. (Okay, I concede that I might need some help.) But he's funny as all get-out, and I like to listen to him. He's the voice of someone who loves the art of storytelling; of someone who will hold a child's wide-eyed attention as he shares the wild antics of a boy and his mischievous gecko; of someone I'd plead, "Just one more chapter, please?"
So I hope that explains it, because I really must go. He's talking to me again and I've got to get back to Dave and Sticky. They are, after all, in the midst of some deep, diabolical doo-doo . . .

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My favorite book of all time!, August 7, 2003

By 

Donna Hayford (???) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How I Survived Being a Girl (Hardcover)

I loved this book since I was in the fourth grade (I was 10 at that time) and picked it up and got it for Literature Circles. The thing I like about it is that Carolyn, the main character, is a tomboy and by being it written in first person, you can see what it's like being in her shoes. It's the kind of book any 12-year-old girl can relate to; and make you not feel alone, and it's great for any 8-12 year old girl to read who's curious and confused about the world around her.

STORYLINE:

This book is about a preteen-aged girl named Carolyn, who wishes she was a boy. I guess you could say she's a tomboy because she has 2 brothers: Allen and Jack, she's surrounded by mostly boys, keeps her hair short, hates dresses, and dresses in boy's clothes every chance she gets. She loves to spy, ditch her brothers and hang out with neighborhood friends, such as Charlie, her best guy friend. She goes on fun adventures like digging underground holes, biking with her brothers, and climbing on neighbors' roof and through rocks down and shining a flashlight down their roof. All Carolyn wants is more friends, a dog, and to get away from all her brothers. When fall comes, she has to go to school, and gets in a lot of trouble, because she calls her teacher names like 'Dragon Lady.' She hates this girly-girl named Helen Lison, who always wears Mary Janes and dresses. But then, when Carolyn is really feeling down, her mother becomes pregnant with a new kid. Carolyn then gets her hopes up and wishes that it is going to be a girl. It comes out to a stunning ending: she cries when she find out it's a girl, she gets tamed a bit and stops wishing she were a boy.

MAIN CHARACTERS:
Carolyn's family is made up of Carolyn (of course), her brothers Jack and Allen, and her Mom and Dad, and a dog that they get towards of the Middle of the book, whom they name Kocory. At the End of the book, her mother has a baby, who they all named Nancy.

Her friends are: Charlie + Will, her next-door neighbors, and her brothers,
Jack and Allen.

WHERE IT TAKES PLACE (AND TIME): A little more than half of this book takes place in the Summer, but some of it takes place in the Fall too, because that's when Carolyn goes back to school.

To make this book more helpful, there should be a little map drawn inside to show the neighborhood, which can be found behind the contents (in my book; if you bought the version first published in 1997).

Well, that was a review on my favorite book! I hope you thought it was helpful. So, would you please click 'yes' or 'no'? :)

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Girls, Girls, Girls, February 19, 2002

A Kid's Review

This review is from: How I Survived Being a Girl (Hardcover)

This book, How I Survived Being a Girl by wendelin Van Draanen shows girls about tomboys and extremely "prissy" girls. (If you like to read about tomboys, every girl's day-to-day life, sibling rivalry, and troublesome activitites then you should read this book because you would love it. In this book there are 19 chapters, all with creative titles. This book tells about carolyn an 11 year old girl, who is a tomboy. Her family and her neighbors understand and accept her tomboy-ish life. On a scale from 1 to 5, 5 being the best; it deserves a 5 because of its unstoppable humor. I am a tomboy type girl. Read it yourself and judge it. "You can't tell a book by its cover."

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So, SO funny!, May 5, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: How I Survived Being a Girl (Harper Trophy) (Paperback)

(This book is) about fighting against the rules ofbeing a girl, not giving into them. And it's the funniest book I'veread in ages! I laughed so, SO much. You've got to read it! END