Boys, Girls, and Other Hazardous Materials by Rosalind Wiseman

Boys, Girls, and Other Hazardous Materials by Rosalind Wiseman

Putnam Juvenile/January 12, 2010/Young Adult/288 pages

Looking for a new beginning after a terrible mean girl past, Charlie Healey realizes there’s no escaping high school drama. Charlie Healey thinks Harmony Falls is the beginning of a whole new life. Middle school was brutal. But high school is Charlie’s big chance to start over and stay out of drama, except that on her first day she runs into Will, her ex–best friend, who had moved away.

Now a varsity athlete and hotter than Charlie remembered, Will hangs with the crowd running the school. But Charlie doesn’t understand their power until an innocent delivery guy falls victim to a near-deadly hazing prank.Torn between doing what’s right and her secret feelings for Will, Charlie must decide whether to turn in her very best friend or live with the guilt of knowing what he did.

Review: Rosalind Wiseman, whose acclaimed book Queen Bees & Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends and Other Realities of Adolescence was the inspiration for the movies Mean Girls, knows about high school students as this books deals with many different issues all relating to things teenagers deal with often.

Charlie Healey comes to Harmony Falls High School hoping for a new, fresh start. During middle school she was friends with girls that were stuck up, popular, and mean, which resulted in all of them getting in trouble. Charlie joins the school newspaper and befriends with the other freshman (who, coincidentally, is the girl her middle school friends caused trouble for.)

This books deals with hazing and the measures people will do to fit in. Will, Charlie's old neighbor friend whom she sees again on the first day of school, makes the varsity soccer team as a freshman and all of the underclassmen must do outrageous things to please the upperclassmen players. Wiseman does a fantastic job at writing about the seriousness of hazing, peer pressure, and staying true to yourself.

Sometimes I felt that the book was predictable, however the writing was good and that made up for it. I'm glad that Charlie stayed true to herself and the friendship with the other girls was nice to read about! Looking forward to more YA books by this author.

Rating:

Characters: 4/5

Originality: 3/5

Ending: 4/5

Writing: 5/5

Voice: 4/5

Plot: 4/5

Enjoyment: 4/5

Favorite character(s): Sydney! She and Charlie become good friends at the start of the school year and I loved her personality! I liked that she was sportive, it really added to her character.

Cover: D. I don't like this cover, it's misleading! However, I really liked the ARC cover. I'm sad that it was change.

Thoughts: 3.5 Stars Good high school book about making the right choices.

*Source: Stacey from Penguin! Thank you so much!