Girl from Mars

by Tamara Bach, Shelley Tanaka (Translator)

Overview

Miriam is fifteen and she has lived in the same little town her whole life, going to school with the same kids who know everything about her. But now she's in high school and wishing she lived in a big city where she could meet new people and see new things. In other words, like fifteen-year-olds everywhere, Miriam is desperately waiting for her life to start happening. Something, anything -- a first love, perhaps.

And then love comes, in a completely unexpected way, when Miriam meets a new classmate, Laura. Suddenly, life is very complicated and unsettling, as Miriam finds herself lying to her girlfriends, avoiding her brother's probing questions, and second guessing every move she makes. Then Philip, Miriam and Laura take a weekend trip to the big city -- a trip that makes everything clear, and more confusing than ever.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781554980185
Publisher:	Groundwood Books Ltd
Publication date:	03/01/2008
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	176
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	14 Years

About the Author

Tamara Bach lives and writes in Berlin, where she also works in young people's television and theater.
Shelley Tanaka is an award-winning author, translator and editor. She has written more than twenty books for children and young adults, winning the Orbis Pictus Award, the Mr. Christie’s Book Award, the Science in Society Book Award and the Information Book Award, and she has twice been nominated for the Deutsche Jugendliteraturpreis. Other honors include Texas Blue Bonnet runner-up, School Library Journal Best Books, ALA Notables and IRA Young Adults’ Choice. Her translation of Michel Noel’s Good for Nothing won the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People and was on the IBBY Honor List (Commended). Shelley teaches at Vermont College of Fine Arts, in the MFA Program in Writing for Children and Young Adults. She lives in Kingston, Ontario.

Editorial Reviews

Like any fifteen year old, Miriam wants something new and different to happen in her life. She is tired of the same friends, the same family, and the same small town. She wants excitement and she wants to find love. What she does find is totally unexpected when love comes from a very different direction. A new girl in school, Laura, is unusual and exciting. She also produces some strange and confusing feelings in Miriam. While Miriam is dealing with these new feelings and Laura, she sees her old friends less and less. She meets Peter, a friend of Laura's, and Miriam is n'ot sure of either of these new friends, but she can'not seem to stop herself from being with them. The story takes place in Germany where things are more liberal than in some countries— —teens drink beer while they hang out listening to music or doing whatever teens do. Tamara Bach does an excellent job of getting into the heads of teens. She writes from their perspective and accurately portrays what it is like when you are n'ot happy with yourself and you are confused by your life and the people around you. Reviewer: Naomi Williamson

Children's Literature - Naomi Williamson

Gr 9 Up

Fifteen year-old Miriam feels tired, average, and ordinary in her small German town. She passes the time daydreaming in class, arguing with her mother, smoking in the girl's bathroom with her two self-obsessed friends, blasting music, sitting/sulking in her room, and sneaking into bars. She is waiting for something new, something big to happen to her. Then she is attracted to a new classmate, attentive and engaging Laura, and Miriam comes out of her shell. As Miriam starts to embrace the more serious turns of their relationship, Laura becomes hesitant and circumspect, leaving the changed Miriam devastated, but ultimately not alone. Bach's writing and Tanaka's translation offer well-drawn, familiar characters and prose that's spare yet descriptive. Miriam's narration, alive with Bach's insightful handling and clever turns of phrase, provides a sense of depth to the highs and lows of teenage emotions like Miriam's small-town claustrophobia, her impatience, confusion, concerns, fear, anger, elation, and heartbreak. Underage drinking, profanity, drug use and sexual situations make this a book for mature teens.-Danielle Serra, Cliffside Park Public Library, NJ

School Library Journal