Customer Reviews

Year of Secret Assignments

5 star:		(61)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Lots of laughs, plenty of attitude, mystery, and hijinx permeate this book. Three longtime girlfriends in high school--Emily, Lydia, and Cassie--who are connected through parents who went to law school together, are each required to become penpals with guys in a cross-town school with a bad reputation. The story is told primarily through these letters back and forth, along with some journal entries, and a hysterically funny fill-in-the-blanks writing workbook that Lydia's dad has given her.

I'd considered myself pretty waterlogged from the publishers' wave of girl-writes-a-journal books of the past few years, but this is a horse of an entirely different flavor. I'm sure there are some great lessons to be garnered from this book, but, above all, I found it to be a totally delightful read. And the author's background as an attorney is certainly put to good (comedic) use.

At first I wasn't sure what more to say about the book.

But being away for a couple of days up in the middle of the (cold, snowy) Sierras this week, with nothing to do at night, I found myself rereading it like it was comfort food. And it's as good as leftover lasagna the second time around. For one thing, I caught many of those little clues concerning who did what that I'd missed the first time through. But, more importantly, I understood all the Emily-isms that I wasn't clear about on the first go round.

In the same way that non-Americans might find it a bit more difficult to understand the wisdom of Yogi Berra or the rapid-fire dialogue in a Marx Brothers movie, I wasn't sure on the first read exactly what was Emily and what was the English language as it is spoken Down-Under. But the second time I understood what the author has accomplished in creating the wacky voice of this young woman who longs to be a lawyer someday:

"I am not saying that this is true. I am only giving a hyperactive situation of how you might give offense."
" 'You must have dislocated it. Try looking again.' "
"I was just nom-plussed..."
"I decided to use this opportunity to practice my handwriting. As you can see, I am developing a highly eloquent style."
"Anyway, I didn't believe that for one millimeter..."
"They have very sun-dewed light so you look attractive in the mirror..."
"I think this is a "play" on Thompson, which is my last name. I think it is an angiogram of Thompson, actually."
"I can't explain how beautiful the singing was because you can't write music."
"We need to cook on the element of surprise."
"It's immortal keeping a secret."
"...he says that schools which are close to one another should forge ties, and I hope you are as keen as I am to get started with the forgery."
"Hyperbole is something to do with graphs. What is it in particular? I don't know. I hate maths."
"Also, I have seen on TV that you can get head transplants and it seems to me that it is a tragedy if you are bald and you don't get a head transplant."

Bravo for the girls from Ashbury and the guys from Brookfield. I have no doubt that this will be a major hit with our students. That is, if they can wrestle it away from us grown ups.

Richie Partington
...

Operation Book Purchase

Agent: Reader
Nickname: REDR
Number: 0102930291
Experience: Has read a variety of other books, is a member of amazon.com

ASSIGNMENT: Buy and read THE YEAR OF SECRET ASSIGNMENTS.

Notes:
This is not a difficult assignment because this book is hilarious, touching, and filled with penpal letters, diary entries, writings in The Notebook (tm), and even court transcipts, complete with adverbial phrases. TYOSA is also from the excellent author of the terrific book Feeling Sorry For Celia, Jaclyn Moriarty. This novel is in fact a companion to said terrific book, and if you have not yet read FSFC, that is your next assignment.

THIS ASSIGNMENT MUST BE COMPLETED ASAP.

I definitely enjoyed the clever writing and 3-dimensional characters, but, as a middle school teacher looking for new books to recommend, I have to pass on this one, due to too much profanity and sexual references. The kids will probably find it on their own, through word of mouth references, since it is quite a delightful work (a la the traveling pants books)--- but I can't put it on my recommended list for this age. High school teachers should take a look, though. I enjoyed the story.

I have to say that I was touched by the quality of friendship between the girls and the new one between the boys. It was amazing to know what's going on in a teenager's mind abroad. I found myself comparing it with my own and wishing if only our language teacher had asked us to do that kind of penpal project, I would have found myself in the crowd too.

There are some issues gave my some thoughts to ponder on, such as this:
The story brought up the children's privacy issue which was interesting since parents sometimes need to know what's in their children's head if something goes wrong. This point was actually broken by the girls themselves by breaking into the culprit's bedroom which I think is a private area, although they had just declared the their amazing declaration about how fragile and what it meant by someone (teacher) breaking into their private stuff (when they were accused).

I know that the breaking the culprit's private stuff was needed to release the girls and it was very wrong for teacher to just breaking the girls' private stuff when their aledgement was not strongly based (the evidence being that someone had told them was really lame to be used by the Form Mistress, I agree). I guess this comes back to the statement: anyone must have prooved and strong enough reason for breaking other's privacy regardless a child's or a grown up's. So that leaves me to the 'insane' Form Mistress. Why could she ever have that attitude towards her own school's students?

It made the adults in this book (specially the teacher) looked bad, but that problem was balanced by the parents' effort to support their children and also without their parents, they might not be able to go free with their argument. Other than that issue, the progress of the penpal project and Cassie's problem were heart-warming. What a way to see yourself and the world.

I can't say enough about this book! I read it in one sitting and loved every page of it! If you haven't already read this book i HIGHLY reccomend it. I told my friend about this book and after the word got around, 12 people I knew had read and very much enjoyed this book! This book is a page turner by far, and if i could, i would recommemd this book to everyone!

I know that a lot of teenage readers, like myself, are not really into these coming-of-age, growing -up kind of novels. Don't let that deter you from getting your hands on this book though - even I found the characters and plot more engaging then any recent read I can remember.

In a nutshell, this book was about three high-school girls - Cass, Lyd and Em - who find new friends through a penpal project in their English class. Lyd and Em have to use every wit and resource they can to try and scrape out the truth about Cass' mysterious letter-correspondent. Actually, the whole novel is written in letters from the friends to their correspondents or in diary entries.

This is probably one of the many reasons why I loved this book so much, as it brought out the personality of the characters well and the reader felt as if they were actually talking to them. This exchange of witty personalities made me wish that I really knew these people - they would have made great friends.

What really set this book apart from the others, though, was how Jaclyn Moriarty showed a real, honest intention in her writing - mainly, to have fun. Many modern teenage authors try to suck up to an adolescent audience by making their characters stereotypically "cool" - I have read too many corny novels about skateboards, boyfriends and sex. Then they feed in some really cliched moral like "Smoking is bad for you", hoping that highly gullible readers fall for it. Through this novel, Jaclyn not only reassures us that she really understands adolescence, but also reassures us that teenage fiction is not completely lost! I would put her in the same rank as Melina Marchetta (Looking for Alibrandi and Saving Francesca)
(Note: In Australia and NZ this book is called "Finding Cassie Crazy")

This book was even better than "Feeling Sorry for Celia."

I've read the other customer reviews, and I wanted to say that I liked all three girls (Lyd, Cass and Em) and found their journeys interesting for different reasons. Lyd is a born leader with a powerful imagination. Her letters made me laugh aloud. But then, so did Cassie's. If you read her second letter to Matthew Dunlop, the understatement is hilarious.

Also, all three girls grow and change throughout the course of the story (Lyd and Em with regards to their relationships with the opposite sex), but Cassie is the one whose journey takes the most courage and who steps out of her comfort zone the most.

An earlier reviewer has done an excellent job of discussing Emily-isms. I found Charlie's comments and Seb's remarks to be quite funny as well. (See Seb's first letter to Lydia and Charlie's first letter to Emily).

Read the book -- you will want to read it over again, just to pick up all the pieces you might have missed.

LOVED it. Very funny, had to read it all in one sitting. You can see all the characters' imperfections & still love them for it. Ya gotta read about their awesome revenge on Matthew. Yeah, so some parents won't be thrilled about the girls skipping school or pranks, whatever--get over it, it is fairly true to life. (except I don't know anyone quite as daring as they are.) Cass, Em, & Lyd rock. I'd love to have friends like them. (and a boyfriend like Seb--what a sweetie!)

The "posh" girls of Ashbury High are being forced to take part in a pen pal project with the "tattooed bunny-killers" of Brookfield High. oh no!

Written completely in letters and such, this very interesting novel will have you hooked untill the last notice board pin up.

You follow three best friends (wild lydia, down to earth Em and "crazy" cassie) as they meet three fellas from brookfield (charlie the car thief (i lov him), seb the artist, and matthew the trumpet player (?))

Its full of love, friendship, revenge, parents, death, self confience, tears and laughter.

I say read it, the idea of letters might put you off if you've ever read "dear clair my ex best friend" but this is quality!

and remember: "Slavery will NOT be tolerated in this school."

I really loved this book, it as such a funny yet realistic stroy about a letter exchange betweeen a private expensive high school, and the local public school - where apparently one needs to have done prison time to enter.
The five main characters (matthew dunlop doesent count) are Lydia Jaackson-Oberman who give out secret assignments, and writes to Seb Mantegna, where they consantly play games, trying to avoid but at the same time seeing each other, giving challenges to avoid exam time and much more. Emily Tomphson has gotten Charlie Taylor, whom she finds very funny and a good friend, and is teaching him how to Go on A Date with a Girl(by studying things like Walking Along Kicking a Pebble or Talking as if Meeting By Chance) , but at the same time end up falling for him head over heels. Nobody quite knows who Cassie Aganovic is talking to. She says his name is Matthew Dunlop - but is that his real name? A fantastic novel for any teen girl who enjoyed Feeling Sorry for Celia