Beginner's Luck

This is a wonderful book to teach to high school students, probably the best I've ever come across. From the teacher's point of view there is symbolism, lovely descriptive writing including some nice similes and metaphors, great characterization, and several themes. Literary references are hidden throughout and thus suggest to the students that knowing poetry, how to write, and about books is not only fun, but can also be quite useful in life. From a students perspective BEGINNER'S LUCK is hilarious, modern, they identify with the characters and conflicts, and there's just enough fairly chaste sex scenes to keep them involved without raising any problems with parents or the school board (though the romance here is extremely mild when you consider what they watch on TV and see in the movies!). My students just loved this book and thanked me for assigning it. They completely understood the emphasis on acceptance, understanding, and the importance of friendship -- things we can never have enough of. I don't believe the novel was written with the intent of being a gold mine for teaching young adults, but then perhaps that's why my students enjoyed it so much. And they're all anxiously awaiting the sequel. In fact, one of the assignemnts was to write an outline for how they would tackle the sequel since the end is left with so many possibilities (much like their lives right now!).

Being a devoted fan of mysteries and science fiction I admit I came to "Beginner's Luck" reluctantly -- it was a double whammy of my mother's book club and extreme boredom while a knee injury healed. HOWEVER, this is one funny and charming book. It's actually hard to say that it's like this or like that. Pederson has the sense of humor of a late night comedian but combines it with believable characters and tons of charm. The scene where Hallie practically falls into a casket at a funeral is especially hilarious. There are so many terrific moments. It will make a great movie or TV series and Robert Downey Jr. should definitely play Bernard. The women in my mom's book club are mostly 50s, and loved the character of Olivia, who is about their age, but it has a lot of appeal for young people. The main character, Hallie, is 16. In fact, it shows young people with realistic problems, but also that teenagers can have fun without sex, drugs, and video games. And (cliche coming) that learning can be fun and actually serve a large purpose in life. Maybe we should make "Beginner's Luck" mandatory reading in all high schools.

This was such a cute book! It's been a while since I've given a book 5 stars. This is such a great story about how one can learn about life through others. Hallie is such a clever girl. Gil, Rocky and the Stocktons were such entertaining characters. I look forward to this author's next book.

This genre of book (coming of age, quirky, etc.) can be tedious but this was truly delightful. Characters, setting, so nice. Lots of laughs out loud.

Apologies to all if this review gets posted twice. I submitted my review about two weeks ago and it never showed up, but this book was worth the effort to resubmit!!I haven't laughed this much since the old "Saturday Night Live" skits. And I haven't read a book this charming since "To Kill A Mockingbird." That's saying a lot, since I worked as a librarian for thirty years, reading and reviewing hundreds of books. "Beginner's Luck" is a beautiful combination of humor and wisdom for all ages. I'd say it's a female version of "Catcher In The Rye," but that doesn't do justice to all the delightful nuances. It's about everything -- life, love, friendship, and death.