Girl v. Boy

by Yvonne Collins, Sandy Rideout

Overview

All's not fair in love, war, and high school journalism Sixteen-year-old Luisa Perez is not looking to win any awards for school spirit. In fact, she and her friends make it a point to avoid all activities considered "extra-curricular." So when her English teacher volunteers her to be an anonymous columnist for the school paper, Luisa's first impulse is to run. Her first assignment is to cover her high school's latest fundraiser, which pits the girls against the boys.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781423141532
Publisher:	Disney Press
Publication date:	12/27/2011
Sold by:	DISNEY PUBLISHING WORLDWIDE -EBKS
Format:	eBook
File size:	667 KB
Age Range:	10 - 14 Years

About the Author

Longtime friends Yvonne Collins and Sandy Rideout met as teens. Together they have also written Totally Me: The Teenage Girl's Survival Guide, as well as a number of popular YA novels, including Word for Word, Introducing Vivien Leigh Reid: Diva in Training and Now Starring Vivien Leigh Reid: Diva in Training. Both authors live in Toronto, Canada.

Editorial Reviews

Chicago's Dunfield High School has a reputation for its abysmal school spirit, and the kids don't care. In fact, sophomore Luisa Perez makes it a point to avoid extra-curricular activities. Instead, she waits tables to help support her family—and waits for her FB (future boyfriend) to appear. Then, surprisingly, the superintendent of schools levels a challenge: Which high school can raise the most money to support literacy? The reward is huge: two extra weeks of vacation during winter break. At Dunfield, the girls take on the boys for an exciting contest. Two anonymous school journalists (Luisa and one boy) cover the competition. Rapidly, they turn from fund-raising reporters to gender combatants. "Girls versus boys" becomes "girl v boy," and the spicy tit-for-tat column becomes so popular that Dunfield becomes a fundraising powerhouse. The ending satisfies, as loose ends are woven in, Dunfield wins extra vacation, and Luisa gets her CB (current boyfriend). The authors of this book take high school readers, primarily girls, on a fun and saucy romp. The pace is lively, and the vocabulary is intelligent. Imaginative new events pop up in each chapter, making this book hard to predict and hard to put down. In addition, but sexy flirtations run through the story like a Valentine-red ribbon. Give it a PG-13 rating for language. However, this otherwise likeable work disappoints in that only the central character (Luisa) is well developed. An array of other characters begs to be known better. There would be plenty of opportunity to do that in a sequel. Reviewer: Margaret C. F. Pollock

Children's Literature - Margaret C. F. Pollock

When offered a chance to write an anonymous column for the school paper chronicling Dunfield High's efforts in Chicago's citywide literacy challenge, 16-year-old Luisa Perez jumps at the chance. She hopes to distance herself from her family's legacy of academic underachievement as well as to differentiate herself from the ten other Luisa Perezes in the school. The competition between the girls and boys heats up, as each group tries to outdo the other in fundraising. Luisa offers the girls' perspective for the paper, while another writer provides the male point of view. As if juggling her writing, a part-time job, school and a sudden rush of possible F.B.s (future boyfriends) were not hard enough, Luisa has to contend with her sister, Grace, who moves back home with her young daughter. Readers will dope out the identity of the boy writer long before he is revealed in the narrative, but a strong voice and quirky characters keep the plot moving despite the absence of dramatic tension. Smart dialogue and realistic scenes add to the story's appeal. (Fiction. 12 & up)

Kirkus Reviews