Pershing only?! ( )

Already this has me laughing out loud (I'm on chapter 3) and it's completely inappropriate for middle school kids in such a way that I highly recommend it to them.

Update: The rest of the book was okay--not so inappropriate after all, either. Not as good as Space Station Seventh Grade (no more laugh-out-loud moments). The great thing about this book is that Jason seems pretty normal, obsessing about boobs and "doing it" and getting hickeys, but Marceline is this kick-butt, real, unique character who never gives in to hickeys or "doing it." She plays her trombone in public, loves being smart, won't wear an ankle bracelet because she'd feel like a slave to Jason if she did, etc. The girls in the novel who are "doing it" are portrayed as shallow bimbos or, more importantly, normal girls who have a reputation for doing things they never even did. So parents can rest-assured that the message in this book is to take things slow and not be raunchy, be yourself (and hickeys are just dumb) but the kids get enough raunchiness to not realize 'til the end that the book does have a good message. Does this make sense? I'm having a hard time articulating here.

It's a good, subtle anti-conformity novel that is more entertaining to young readers, more realistic,and not as "deep" as others. I think middle school kids will relate to Jason way more than, say, Jonas of The Giver, and is more effective on the topic of non-conformity, even though this book would be considered smut compared to The Giver.



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I am a big fan of Jerry Spinelli's young, bumbling, true to life characters; however, this book seemed a little crude and sometimes overtly sexual. Is it true to life? Probably, but I felt that the overly sexual nature of the content distracted me from the "Spinelli-esque" characterization I usually enjoy. ( )

A sweet story of first love, from the boy's perspective. ( )