10 Things I Hate About You (Mass Market Paperback)

by David Levithan (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
A romantic comedy based on the classic Shakespeare play, "The Taming of the Shrew, " this book is a tie-in to the new teen movie starring Larisa Oleynik, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and teen idol Andrew Keegan.

Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 170 pages
• Publisher: Scholastic (June 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0439087309
• ISBN-13: 978-0439087308
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 4.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #492,444 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A comedy that will have you laughing until it hurts., October 21, 1999

By A Customer

Could you believe having a father who won't let you date until your older "anti-boy" sister does? That's how Bianca's life is in the novel 10 Things I Hate About You, by David Levithan. Kat's Life on the other hand is just as bad. Kat and Bianca are two sisters with an incredibaly uptight father. He won't let Kat go to the college she wants, and he won't let Bianca date until Kat does (which is never). Bianca is determined to find the "perfect" man for Kat. With the help from Cameron, a guy who is madly in love with her, Bianca finds someone who is willing to go out with Kat...but is Kat willing to go out with him? You'll just have to read the book.

10 Things I Hate About You is a well written book with a lot of details about the characters. What makes it interesting is that each chapter is told by a different character. So, the reader gets to experience the action from all differnt points of view. The characters are what makes this book a five star novel. Most teenagers could find a lot of similarities with the characters in this book. Take Bianca for example. She's beautiful, very popular, sweet, and smart. Most guys in her school fall for her. Bianca's older sister, Kat, hates school and boys. She used to be popular...until she changed. Both sisters can't stand eachother. The characters in this story are believable. Their personalities are supported with a lot of details. 10 Things I Hate About You is a great book. Get it today and you won't want to put it down.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Movie: good; Book; not so good, May 11, 2001

By	Katie (Chicago) - See all my reviews

They could have done a much better job with this book. Even though the movie was PG-13, the book was toned down to be appropriate to younger audiences. Because of that, a lot of the more fun parts of the movie (Kat flashing the soccer coach, Bobby Rigeway's fate at Kat's hands, most of the funny lines that included such horrible profanities as "screwboy") had to be omitted and you don't really get a clue as to what Joey's intentions are until the end of the book. Practically anything that could be construed as sexual innuendo was removed -- eliminating some of the funniest lines in the movie -- and the entire thing was pretty much toned down to be acceptable for a PG audience, not the PG-13 audience that the movie was intended for. That greatly diminished my enjoyment of the book. The writing was also something I considered subpar. While the dialogue was still of the same caliber of the movie, all of the thoughts and actions seemed flat to me. One of the main things I enjoy about novilizations is the fact that you can get inside the character's head, but there wasn't enough of that in this book, and what there was of it was well...dumb. For example, the whole fight at the prom (post Joey's little announcement) took up a page and a half in large type and anything the book says about their thoughts could be inferred from the movie or just plain common sense (gee, who would have though that Kat was angry and hurt. wow. revelations) In short, you might like this book if you don't mind that the best lines of the movie had to be cut and don't have very high standards for your reading material.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 1000000000 stars!, June 30, 1999

By A Customer

Of course it's not better than the movie, but what is? It was so wonderful being able to play back most of the cute little lines in your head, because this book has all of the parts of the movie (except stuff refering to sex) EVEN THE CUT SCENES FROM THE MOVIE! I loved it. I read it in 2 days. Each chapter is from a different characters perspective. Each chapter is no more than 3 pages so you don't have to be afraid to start a chapter and not be able to finish it. Now I can memorize all of the cute lines from the movie and read the poem to my friends. If you like the movie and want to keep reliving it even while we anxiously wait for it to come out on video, READ THIS BOOK!