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Discover more about Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower, with an excerpt, a teaching guide, and the reader's guide [PDF]. |
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
What is most notable about this funny, touching, memorable first novel from Stephen Chbosky is the resounding accuracy with which the author captures the voice of a boy teetering on the brink of adulthood. Charlie is a freshman. And while's he's not the biggest geek in the school, he is by no means popular. He's a wallflower--shy and introspective, and intelligent beyond his years, if not very savvy in the social arts. We learn about Charlie through the letters he writes to someone of undisclosed name, age, and gender, a stylistic technique that adds to the heart-wrenching earnestness saturating this teen's story. Charlie encounters the same struggles that many kids face in high school--how to make friends, the intensity of a crush, family tensions, a first relationship, exploring sexuality, experimenting with drugs--but he must also deal with his best friend's recent suicide. Charlie's letters take on the intimate feel of a journal as he shares his day-to-day thoughts and feelings:
From Publishers Weekly
A trite coming-of-age novel that could easily appeal to a YA readership, filmmaker Chbosky's debut broadcasts its intentions with the publisher's announcement that ads will run on MTV. Charlie, the wallflower of the title, goes through a veritable bath of bathos in his 10th grade year, 1991. The novel is formatted as a series of letters to an unnamed "friend," the first of which reveals the suicide of Charlie's pal Michael. Charlie's response--valid enough--is to cry. The crying soon gets out of hand, though--in subsequent letters, his father, his aunt, his sister and his sister's boyfriend all become lachrymose. Charlie has the usual dire adolescent problems--sex, drugs, the thuggish football team--and they perplex him in the usual teen TV ways. [...] Into these standard teenage issues Chbosky infuses a droning insistence on Charlie's supersensitive disposition. Charlie's English teacher and others have a disconcerting tendency to rhapsodize over Charlie's giftedness, which seems to consist of Charlie's unquestioning assimilation of the teacher's taste in books. In the end we learn the root of Charlie's psychological problems, and we confront, with him, the coming rigors of 11th grade, ever hopeful that he'll find a suitable girlfriend and increase his vocabulary.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
See all Editorial Reviews
What is most notable about this funny, touching, memorable first novel from Stephen Chbosky is the resounding accuracy with which the author captures the voice of a boy teetering on the brink of adulthood. Charlie is a freshman. And while's he's not the biggest geek in the school, he is by no means popular. He's a wallflower--shy and introspective, and intelligent beyond his years, if not very savvy in the social arts. We learn about Charlie through the letters he writes to someone of undisclosed name, age, and gender, a stylistic technique that adds to the heart-wrenching earnestness saturating this teen's story. Charlie encounters the same struggles that many kids face in high school--how to make friends, the intensity of a crush, family tensions, a first relationship, exploring sexuality, experimenting with drugs--but he must also deal with his best friend's recent suicide. Charlie's letters take on the intimate feel of a journal as he shares his day-to-day thoughts and feelings:
I walk around the school hallways and look at the people. I look at the teachers and wonder why they're here. If they like their jobs. Or us. And I wonder how smart they were when they were fifteen. Not in a mean way. In a curious way. It's like looking at all the students and wondering who's had their heart broken that day, and how they are able to cope with having three quizzes and a book report due on top of that. Or wondering who did the heart breaking. And wondering why.With the help of a teacher who recognizes his wisdom and intuition, and his two friends, seniors Samantha and Patrick, Charlie mostly manages to avoid the depression he feels creeping up like kudzu. When it all becomes too much, after a shocking realization about his beloved late Aunt Helen, Charlie retreats from reality for awhile. But he makes it back in due time, ready to face his sophomore year and all that it may bring. Charlie, sincerely searching for that feeling of "being infinite," is a kindred spirit to the generation that's been slapped with the label X. --Brangien Davis
From Publishers Weekly
A trite coming-of-age novel that could easily appeal to a YA readership, filmmaker Chbosky's debut broadcasts its intentions with the publisher's announcement that ads will run on MTV. Charlie, the wallflower of the title, goes through a veritable bath of bathos in his 10th grade year, 1991. The novel is formatted as a series of letters to an unnamed "friend," the first of which reveals the suicide of Charlie's pal Michael. Charlie's response--valid enough--is to cry. The crying soon gets out of hand, though--in subsequent letters, his father, his aunt, his sister and his sister's boyfriend all become lachrymose. Charlie has the usual dire adolescent problems--sex, drugs, the thuggish football team--and they perplex him in the usual teen TV ways. [...] Into these standard teenage issues Chbosky infuses a droning insistence on Charlie's supersensitive disposition. Charlie's English teacher and others have a disconcerting tendency to rhapsodize over Charlie's giftedness, which seems to consist of Charlie's unquestioning assimilation of the teacher's taste in books. In the end we learn the root of Charlie's psychological problems, and we confront, with him, the coming rigors of 11th grade, ever hopeful that he'll find a suitable girlfriend and increase his vocabulary.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
See all Editorial Reviews
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
I am writing to you because she said you listen and understand and didn't try to sleep with that person at that party even though you could have. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
stephen chbosky Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Mary Elizabeth, Aunt Helen, Big Boy, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Secret Santa, The Fountainhead, Charlie May, Charlie June, Charlie December, Penn State, Naked Lunch, Charlie February, The Catcher, Peter Pan, Punk Rocky, Charlie September, The Stranger, Charlie January, Autumn Leaves, Henry David Thoreau, Charlie October, Charlie November, Billie Holiday, Time Warp, Action Jack New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
I am writing to you because she said you listen and understand and didn't try to sleep with that person at that party even though you could have. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
stephen chbosky Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Mary Elizabeth, Aunt Helen, Big Boy, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Secret Santa, The Fountainhead, Charlie May, Charlie June, Charlie December, Penn State, Naked Lunch, Charlie February, The Catcher, Peter Pan, Punk Rocky, Charlie September, The Stranger, Charlie January, Autumn Leaves, Henry David Thoreau, Charlie October, Charlie November, Billie Holiday, Time Warp, Action Jack New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 12
books:
See all 12 books this book cites
29
books
cite this book:
See all 29 books citing this book
- This Side Of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald on page 20, and page 105
- Peter Pan (Modern Library Classics) by J.M. Barrie on page 28
- Peter Pan (Everyman's Library Children's Classics) by J.M. Barrie on page 28
- Naked Lunch (Harper Perennial Modern Classics) by William S. Burroughs on page 107
- Peter Pan (Acting Edition) by J.M. Barrie on page 28
See all 12 books this book cites
- Great Books for High School Kids: A Teacher's Guide to Books That Can Change Teens' Lives by Amy Crawford on 10 pages
- Serving Older Teens (Libraries Unlimited Professional Guides for Young Adult Librarians Series) by Sheila B. Anderson on page 118, and page 123
- Pieces by Stephen Chbosky in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Quotes to Inspire Great Reading Teachers: A Reflective Tool for Advancing Students' Literacy by Cathy Collins Block on page 107, and page 117
- Quotes to Inspire Great Reading Teachers: A Reflective Tool for Advancing Students' Literacy by Cathy Collins Block on page 107, and page 117
See all 29 books citing this book
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