Customer Reviews

Veronica Ganz

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

 

 

I read this as an insecure fourth grader. Like Veronica, I was clumsy and bigger than everyone else, so I was teased a lot. I admired Veronica and the way she never let anyone push her around. Kids were really wild growing up, and I wanted to be like Veronica; brave and strong, taking no guff from anyone! I thought it was cool the way the author attempts to show that women/girls aren't the weaker sex. All my life people told me that men are better than women, etc., and this book settled the score! Now when I think about it, it is a bit unusual for a bully to be female; usually female bullies might have been victims of abuse or something. Veronica comes from a broken home and she and her sister Mary Rose Ganz are from her mother's first marriage. In the 1940's when this story took place, divorce was unusual. Anyway Veronica lives with her mother, sister, and her stepfather and half brother Stanley, and Veronica feels like she has to stand up for herself and her family. It seems like their real dad is distant; they haven't seen him since they were babies, and all he does is send letters and money. And he apparently has always been breaking their hearts by saying that he's coming to visit and then cancelling at the last minute, anyway, Veronica says she couldn't care less but i think deep down it hurts her, and her sister is always crying and devistated over their father not coming. I think that's the cause of VEronica's behavior towards others, and i think she has a lot of anger inside. She gets irritate easily, and usually when she lets people have it, she is successful, until Peter moves to town, and he gives her heck and she chases him for months. It is neat the way the story ends, and I don't want to tell it and spoil it for anyone, but anyway another comment i have is that although i appreciate the way this book stands up for the female gender, i think it went a little overboard in that it sort of put men down by making them seem like wimps. I guess Veronica had a lot of problems being lonely and insecure and not having a father in the home, even though her stepfather was a nice guy. WHat bothered me was the way Veronica was always complaining about her stepfather and her mother always screamed at him. However,it was a totally awesome book and the author is cool and she has a point in all this!

I was probably 9 or 10 when I first read this book. That was a good 20 something years ago! I still remember "Veronica Ganz doesn't wear pants!" and I can still see the simple black & white line drawings. I checked it out from the local library & I believe I still owe them money because I returned it very late without ever finishing it. I was a terribly slow reader (still am). This book has haunted me as something I've loved & cherished from a not so good childhood. I remember laughing & being so enthralled in what Veronica was up to. I can honestly say this book had a HUGE impact on my youth & what reading means to me now. I need to get a copy for myself so I can re-experience it all the whole way through this time! ...and without library fines!

I was a child of the 70's. I read this book after watching an episode of "From Cover to Cover" What do I remember? "Veronica Gantz doesn't wear pants!!!" I know that is probably not significant to someone wanting a review,but consider that I was probably 9, 10 or 11 when I read it and I am going to be 47 this year. While it is not in this book, I do remember details from another one of Sachs novels, that involved the main character cutting out photographs of jewelry to wear. Veronica is in that one too.

Veronica Ganz is the biggest, toughest bully in school. All the other kids in her class are afraid of her, until the day that little Peter Wedemeyer shows up. Despite his small size (or in some cases because of it), Peter manages to elude every attempt Veronica makes to keep him in line, all the while driving her into a frenzy with rhymes such as "Veronica Ganz/ Doesn't wear pants." Veronica's constant attempts to get back at Peter, only to be thwarted, read like a real-life version of Elmer Fudd trying to get that wabbit. Finally Peter and his friends decide enough is enough and it's time to just stand up to the bully, but things take a very surprising twist.

I thought this book was very funny when I read it as a child - I enjoyed it and still do. For one thing, the gender roles are reversed. The big tough scary bully Goliath is a girl, and the little victim David is a boy who's too physically small to just punch back on his own, and thus needs to use his wits or enlist helpers. However, the portrayal of "bullying" as something that's scary to kids but is unlikely to result in a lawsuit, a serious physical injury, or much parental concern is probably out of step with today's views. This story is set in the early 1940s, and the concept of a "bully" is about on the level of the movie "A Christmas Story" - it's someone who might give you a black eye or a bruise but isn't going to break your arm, put you in the hospital or traumatize you for life. At the time and place I read the book (a Midwestern suburb in the 70s), bullying was still about on that level - kids punched each other all the time and had schoolyard fights, and teachers still used the occasional ruler to discipline the kids. Nowadays, that sort of behavior would get you a lawsuit and court-ordered therapy. Different era.

The good part is that the "bully" is in the end, redeemed. I'd recommend the book for adults and for children who can understand the historical setting and culture, but it's probably not for everyone.

I read this book when i was in 3rd,4th or 5th grade.I decided to get it and reread it. It was published in 1968 and it was fun to see older style names like Bertha, Stanley, Mary Rose and Frieda for some of the book's characters.The setting seems to be NY or a large city in a poorer section of town.This book really has a lotta violence for a childrens story. I don't think you would find a book today that has so much unless it was aimed at teens. Just a heads up.