A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl

I finally got to read Tanya Lee Stone's "A Bad Boy can be Good for a Girl". I sure wish it would have been around when I was in high school, there where definitely plenty of bad boys. I just wish I could have been as was as Josie. Besides the fact that it was great writing, the book had an excellent message. Even the girls who made mistakes with the boy where not ridiculed or considered bad and they all learned from the experience. It will definitely be highly recommended by me at school. I have a lot of girls who will love it, and a lot of girls who NEED to read it. It is a must for every high school library, and probably even every jr. high library as well. I give it a 5 star must have rating.

A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl is only the second verse novel that I've read (after Hugging the Rock by Susan Taylor Brown). And I have to say that if these two books are at all representative, then I'm completely hooked. I love the combination of a fast-paced, streamlined read with wonderful language selection. I read Bad Boy in one sitting, and didn't want it to end. I read the end material in the book. I read the discussion questions on the handy bookmark that Tanya provided, and I spent time thinking about them. I thought about my own high school experiences. I wondered if Josie, Nicolette, and Aviva would end up becoming friends. I thought of which of them I personally identified with the most. But I'm getting ahead of myself. A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl is a verse novel told in the distinct voices of three high school girls. Josie is a freshman, smart and confident but (she assures us) not stuck up. Nicolette is a junior, popular with the boys, in a certain sort of way, but the kind of girl who other girls tend to avoid. Aviva is a senior, a "Criss-Crosser" who has friends in lots of cliques, but manages to maintain her own individuality. One after another, each of these three girls, very different on the surface, falls for the same unnamed boy, a popular senior jock. Their experiences with him vary, but have commonalities, too. I think that any adult reader of this book will find occasion to wince here and there, as certain incidents or feelings ring true. This book is a very frank look at high school politics and relationships. Although it's not a difficult read, I wouldn't recommend it for most middle schoolers, because it is very open concerning teen sex. That said, I do highly recommend it for high schoolers, especially girls. The "bad boy" of the title is good for the girls in the story in part by making them wiser. If readers can gain a little of that wisdom from this book, without having to experience everything that Josie, Nicolette, and Aviva experience, so much the better. I also like the way the characters in this book learn from the one in Judy Blume's Forever, and use the end pages of a copy of Forever to record a manual for other girls: "some little book where a girl could look up what to do what not to do and who not to do it with" I read this book quickly, to find out what would happen next, but the verse kept catching me up, and slowing me down. I would stop and shake my head at the aptness of a phrase, or the clever way that the author uses verse to speed up, or slow down, or convey mood. Here's an example: "How can a person, any person, even just a friend, turn off, snap--- just like that?" I love the "just, like, that". The very words snap with finality. Another nice thing about the verse form is that it takes us right inside the minds of Josie, Nicolette, and Aviva in a way that a narrative form might not. It seems particularly fitting for this topic, because first love and heartbreak are exactly the ki

A BAD BOY CAN BE GOOD FOR A GIRL by Tanya Lee Stone, Wendy Lamb Books, January 2006, ISBN: 0-385-74702-0, Publisher recommendation: 14 years and up "the sound of them strong stalking talking about their prey like the way hammer meets nail pounding, they say pounding out the rhythms of attraction like a woman was a drum like a body was a weapon like there was something more they wanted than the journey like it was owed to them steel toed they walk and I'm wondering why this fear of men" --Ani Difranco, "The Slant" Josie: "In one more second it will be too late. " 'WAIT!' " Nicolette: "Am I a whore because I like sex? Or because I did it too soon? Or too much? Nobody ever calls boys whores. "Why is that?" Aviva: "I wouldn't want to go through this again. But unfortunately, something tells me this stuff is tricky. I doubt this is the only mistake I'm going to make. And I'm not so sure it was a mistake, anyway. "I kind of hope he learns something too. Even if it's only for the sake of the next girl who comes along. Or the one after that. Or maybe the one after that! "He's cute and all, but not what I'd call a real quick study! "I laugh out loud. "And I'm happy for a second, because I still know how to find the funny. "I like that about myself." A BAD BOY CAN BE GOOD FOR A GIRL is the story told from the point of view of these three teens. Each of them has a relationship with the same guy at school. Josie is the wide-eyed freshman, who suddenly feels like a somebody. Nicolette, the junior, really thinks she is in control. And Aviva is the bright senior with the hip and trusting parents. All three think they know what they're getting into. Some of the lessons that readers might glean from this quick, engaging, and powerful novel in verse include: 1. Look and think (and think again) before leaping into bed. 2. If your female schoolmates are saying and writing uncomplimentary things regarding the character and behavior of a boy, it might be wise to take them seriously. 3. You may think that you are wiser and less vulnerable than these three characters, or the girls you know in real life, but you're not. A BAD BOY CAN BE GOOD FOR A GIRL will raise some eyebrows for being a book where the only marginally sympathetic male character is someone's father who shows up for a couple of sentences. We meet the athletic young man, the villain of the book who seriously lacks redeeming social values, through the stories that the three girls tell However, he is not one of the narrators. I've already had a long, animated discussion with my wife about how there are guys are like TL: Are such guys clueless about their behavior or do they consciously develop these strategies to have sex with girls? (I was the one insisting that guys who behave like this are out there. I remember being an adolescent and overhearing guys boasting about being members of the "4F Club.") Part of what makes Laurie Halse Anders

Women all remember the way it started; the butterflies in the pit of your stomach when he looks your way, the breathless rollercoaster rush of wanting...so new and confusing and altogether wonderful. They also remember the way it ended; holding your pillow and sobbing your eyes out, wondering what you did to deserve this. Tanya Lee Stone's poignant story of three girls and one bad boy brings an honest and forthright coming of age story to all parents and teens who want ( and need) to talk about this confusing and magical time of life. This book is a must share for me as a mom of two boys and a girl. It's so easy for boys to get caught up in the conquest and forget that they are playing with the emotions of very real young women. And girls forget that a smile and whispered words of love are no substitute for their own feelings of worth. This novel celebrates the mystical, bewildering, heart-racing beauty of first love while acknowledging how difficult these encounters can be. Keep this novel on your coffee table and let it open the door for honest conversation with your children.

We all know him - that guy who's so incredible looking, so charming, so seductive we can't seem to keep away even when we sense we should. In "A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl", three different high school girls fall for that guy, each making different, life-altering choices about love and sex in the course of her relationship with him. The gentle, plainspoken poetry of this verse novel sneaks up on you and grabs you just when you're not expecting it, much like the "bad boy" of the title manages to surprise both the reader and the three girls - confident girls who are sure they know who they are. Honest and unflinching, deft in its characterizations and familiar to every girl who's ever gotten mixed up with the wrong guy, "Bad Boy"is direct in its portrayal of teen sexuality without ever being tawdry. How Tanya Stone managed to write a book that's both a cautionary tale and a celebration is beyond me, but she has. This is the kind of book one can learn from, the kind of book that reads like the whispers of older, wiser sisters. I recommend it to teen girls and any woman who remembers the pain, confusion and, yes, exhilaration of falling for a "bad" boy.