Getting the Girl: A Guide to Private Investigation, Surveillance, and Cookery

Sherman Mack is one of the funniest voice I've read lately, and this whole story has the quirk-factor turned on high. I don't know if an actual high school freshman (especially one who mixes his words (expired for aspired and that sort of thing)) could come up with some of his zingers, but they made me laugh all the same. Sherman's mom is a glitter-loving burlesque dancer, his male role model and mentor is a gardening neighbor who likes to tipple, and he has a collection of unusual, wonderful individuauls as both teachers and friends. He enjoys his cooking class, gets crushes on a number of girls, finds himself embroiled in a mystery, tangles with the popular jocks and consults with his Law & Order (the TV show) loving friend Vanessa. Vanessa is a wonderful piece of work -- maybe she'll get a book of her own. I wish the subtitle didn't mention Private Investigation and Surveillance, as I didn't feel the plot was really the strongest point of the book. The real strength is in the characters. I enjoyed a great many laughs, and "met" some kids and adults I wish I'd known in high school. If there were a category for 4-and-one-half stars, that's what I'd give this book.

Harewood Tech is just like every high school. It has it's pretty and popular girls, it's nerds, it's drama geeks...everyone, really. Except it has one extra group. The Defiled. At Harewood Tech, being Defiled is the worst fate that can befall a girl. It happens when, someone (no one knows who), posts a girl's picture in the bathroom with the letter "D" on it. From then on, that girl is a social leper. Because, of course, everyone starts to ignore and shun her. The horrible act of defiling has gone on unchallenged for a pretty loonnnng time. That is, until Sherman Mack (a geeky, yet original, freshman learns that his crush, the beautiful and nice, Dini Trioli(despite the fact that Dini will neverever see him as a potential boyfriend..), might be next up on the list to be Defiled. And of course, Sherman doesn't want that to happen. All it takes is the urging of his good friend, Vanessa, and Sherman Mack is investigating the who, the what and the why behind the Defiled. I've always been kind of iffy with authors writing in first person from a perspective of the opposite gender of themselves. Oftentimes, it just comes off as completely and utterly unnatural. However, in Getting the Girl, Susan Juby's Sherman Mack is hilarious, realistic and completely easy to relate to. He's quirky, funny and as he relays the story of this investigation, he leaves nothing out. Even his fantasies about random female characters in the book. The story idea itself, well, it's pretty terrific. There are many books on the hierarchy of high school; however, I think this one is one of my favorites. The problem is tackled uniquely and hilarity ensues along the way. I was laughing out-loud as I read Getting the Girl! Along with Sherman Mack, Susan Juby's cast of characters is widespread and varied. Sherman's mother is a bartender who has a thing for burlesque dancing. Definitely not your typical mother... His friends, those he has and those he meets along the way, all add extra flavor to the book. From the Trophy Wives that he befriends (or who befriend him) to his friend Vanessa, every single character is vital to the novel. Sherman's developing relationship with Vanessa is particularly interesting to read about... I really don't have any qualms at all with Getting the Girl! Buy it, now!

Juby, S. (2008). Getting the Girl: A Guide to Private Investigation, Surveillance, and Cookery. New York: HarperTeen. 9780060765255 Not to be confused with (My future husband) Markus Zusak's YA novel Getting the Girl which focuses on the relationship between two Australian brothers, THIS Getting the Girl is set in a school where girls are occasionally declared "defiled" and considered ghostly outcasts. Fearing that his crush may be the next girl to be defiled, ninth grader, Sherman Mack decides to investigate who does the defiling and why. Humorous and well written, this mystery reminded me of the works of John Green (another would-be husband, but alas, he didn't wait for me and has already gotten married), but a little younger and a little lighter. The book includes quirky characters, many great lines and some social commentary. One of the other things that I also like about this book is that not all of the characters are assumed to be middle class. Sherman doesn't know who his father is and his mom is a bartender interested in burlesque dancing (Quirky!) who got pregnant when she was sixteen. Juby seemed to do a good job of writing from a boy's perspective. Of course, my ability to judge this is limited, what with not being a boy either. Most of Sherman's masculinity is expressed through being attracted to various female characters. Despite that, this book is begging to be examined in terms of the way gender is constructed.(particularly since girls are often considered potential victims). While I think this book would be perfect for eighth or ninth graders, the length of the book (341 pages) could scare a lot of students that age away. But at the same time, not many eleventh or twelfth graders will want to read about a ninth grader. Plus a few secondary characters smoke pot, another character is a dealer. Activities to do with the book: Since the word defiled is used to describe the girls cast out of the high school social scene, a great project would be to research the significance of the word defiling among different cultures and ethnic groups. Who or what gets defiled in different societies and why? Does the fact that only girls had been `defiled' previously at the start of the novel seem significant thinking both historically and in contemporary society? (As a side note, I went to the OED (Oxford English Dictionary: the super-dictionary for super-nerds which considers word origin and shifts in meaning). Apparently, the word `defile' has been around in English since the 1400s.) Also, after reading this book and given the right context, maybe a teacher could provoke an honest conversation about school cliques in schools within literature circles. They can consider how socio-economic status influence the popularity and power of various characters. This book could start a discussion on the theme of transgression in literature, since Sherman transgresses gender roles and social groups. If a teacher ever examined mys

The thing about mysteries is that the writing can be absolutely stellar, but if the big reveal sucks, the whole book seems pointless. That is the central problem about Getting the Girl. Mack is an awesome narrator, the kind of guy you think doesn't really exist in real life. The whole story is incredibly unique and convoluted (in a good way). I'm reading this and thinking, "Wow. Susan Juby sure has gone a long way since Alice, I Think." And then, in a totally anticlimactic way, the Defiler is revealed, and it all seems like a waste of time. Why bother? It was nothing shocking, nothing to provoke thought, nothing that would warrant an emotional response of any kind. I was having so much fun theorizing, only to have it be the most boring result possible. Yawn. And the thing is, there are so many great characters she's created that could and would have been better as the perp, and she doesn't pick any of them. What if it had been Vanessa? Or Dini herself? How much more amazing would that have been to read? So, good writing, good characters, but horribly flat ending that really reveals nothing at all about the problems in the high school hierarchy. Rating: 4/5

There is only one thing--one girl, to be more specific--on Sherman Mack's mind as he starts his freshmen year Harewood Tech, and that is Dini Trioli. But the unlikelihood of her ever recognizing short, geeky Sherm as a datable guy increases when she starts going out with the most popular senior in their school. That doesn't discourage him though, because it's not long before he finds evidence that Dini might be Defiled--the ultimate humiliation for any girl at Harewood. Lives have been ruined by the Defiler, who cleverly destroys a girl's social standing just by posting a few pictures in bathrooms with the letter D on them, causing his fellow classmates to do the rest by ostracizing the girl. Sherm is outraged that anyone would ever dream of Defiling Dini, so under the influence of his friend Vanessa, he launches a crazy, risky, and hilarious investigation, only looking for the person responsible for ruining Dini. But the forces that are the Defilers are more powerful than Sherm realizes, and he finds himself taking on more than he anticipated. But with the help of his eccentric friends, a book on private investigating, and his excellent cooking skills, he might just make social history. Susan Juby, who became known for her wit and intelligence is her Alice series and her sensitivity and humor in Another Kind of Cowboy, emulates a truly authentic and reachable character in Sherm, who doesn't shy around the nitty-gritty details, no matter how embarrassing or personal. Her knack for creating the most outrageous and zany characters and circumstances with the utmost seriousness punctuates her story with reality perfectly. The mystery aspect of the novel was kept unnecessarily uncomplicated, but readers will have to pay real sharp attention to the details in order to catch all the tiny hints and clues that are easy to miss. The final showdown is a surprising and tiny bit dragged out, but it works nicely with the flow of the book and the effect is true to the voice and characters of the novel. Full of quirks, laughs, and a dash of serious social problems, Getting the Girl is one book that you won't want to miss.