What Every Girl (except me) Knows [Hardcover]

Nora Raleigh Baskin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2001

Unlike most kids faced with the prospect of having a stepmother, Gabby Weiss isn't the slightest bit resistant to the idea. Gabby wishes her father would hurry up and marry someone who knows more about womanhood than she does, someone who understands her obsession with all that is happening (and, worse, not happening!) to her body. For a while, it seems as though her father's girlfriend, Cleo, might soon be filling the role of mother, but when things fall apart, Gabby has to find her own solution. So she travels to the last place she remembers seeing her mother, searching for a memory. But what she finds is something even better.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Gabby, the sixth-grade narrator of this bittersweet, emotionally complex first novel, ardently wishes she had someone to teach her how to be more like a girl ("or womanly or girlish or feminine, whatever you want to call it"). Gabby was three when her mother died, and she doesn't get much guidance from her art professor dad or older brother. Her father's girlfriend, Cleo, seems to be teaching Gabby a lot, but the more Gabby learns about girlhood, the more complicated life gets. Will Gabby measure up to the standards of Mrs. Tyler, mother of Gabby's new best friend? As Cleo and her dad get engaged, can Gabby call Cleo "Mom"? Then there are even more disturbing puzzles, such as why Cleo suddenly breaks up with Gabby's father, and why the subject of Gabby's mother is always carefully avoided. Possessing a keen understanding of pubescent concerns and a good ear for "tween" talk, Baskin sensitively renders the tumultuous period between childhood and adolescence. Although the author focuses on conflicts specific to girls, she also pays close attention to shaping the males in her book, making them three-dimensional, sympathetic characters, who, readers will sense, have stories as complex as Gabby's. Resolutions are not sugar-coated, and the light at the end of Gabby's journey into womanhood seems real. Ages 9-12.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Gr 5-7-Baskin has created a thoroughly likable and credible character in this candid, lively, and absorbing story. Like most 12-year-old girls, Gabby focuses on becoming a woman, but she's not really sure what that means. Her mother died when Gabby was three and she's been researching the question for herself. She feels doubly cheated because, unlike her older brother Ian, she has no memory of her mother, and her father won't talk about her. Gabby remains a well-adjusted, keenly observant, capable adolescent. She stands up for and befriends a new girl in sixth grade and hopes that her father will marry his new girlfriend. Finally, in an attempt to trigger her memory about her mother's death, she is determined to take a train to New York City to see the apartment where they lived at the time. Gabby's emotional discovery about the circumstances of her mother's death brings the story to a dramatic conclusion, but readers will feel confident that she will get through it and thrive. The author has created an engrossing coming-of-age story peopled with characters about whom it is easy to care, and Ian's empathy when he realizes his sister's needs is beautifully developed. This is a fine novel that offers a perceptive and positive look at dealing with loss.-Renee Steinberg, Fieldstone Middle School, Montvale, NJ

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown; 1st edition (April 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316070211
• ISBN-13: 978-0316070218
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,629,882 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The same but much better, January 7, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: What Every Girl (except me) Knows (Hardcover)

Children's literature is filled with stories of kids with dead or emotionally dead parents and the emotional angst involved with adolescence. I have read hundreds of them. Some are much better than others. This is one of the better ones.

Gabby sounds and acts real. She and her friends talk like preteens. They all have problems and they are all struggling to understand themselves and sometimes each other. Gabby is sympathetic without being pathetic. Gabby knows loneliness, but she also knows love and friendship. She has been an outcast and she struggles to understand why she is on the outside, thinking it is because she is motherless. She learns that her mother's death and absence are a critical part of her emotional make-up, but not the only reasons for her problems. The other kids around her have problems, too. Problems are a fact in any life.

Baskin has written an emotionally reachable book without sinking into pathos. The characters don't want to be pitied, not even Gabby at her worst moments. They just want to be understood.

This book is a great read and I will be very surprised if it doesn't get some recognition from various medal-awarding groups. I am wholeheartedly promoting it to the kids in my local library.

If you like Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's "Alice" series, you will definitely like this book.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book, September 20, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: What Every Girl (except me) Knows (Hardcover)

I'm a boy and I read the book and I loved it. It's about a 12 year old girl name Gabby Weis growing up without a mother. I found the book surprisingly funny and interesting. Baskin did a great job writting about Gabbys' struggles through life and middle school . I'd recommened this book to all kids boys and girls ages 9-15. This was a great book and I will definate
ly read her next book. You should really get the book it was great.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Book That Every Girl Should Read, June 14, 2001

A Kid's Review

This review is from: What Every Girl (except me) Knows (Hardcover)

This book is the best!! I couldn't put it down! Best of all it takes place in my town, so I know where the book is talking about! This book is about a girl growing up without a mother, and the hardships she faces. Like her dads girlfriend Cleo and her brother. The book is a true story!! The characters names are made up, buty their based on real people. The worst thing about the book is that her mother really died that way!! But this book is a REALLY good book!! I hope she writes a sequal!!