Lee Gjertsen Malone

Theme of "appreciate the particulars of your own life; there's no such thing as normal anyway," which frankly is a still good a lesson for me and it would have been great if I'd learned it when I was twelve. Also gently makes the point that the way Jeremy feels -- that the world around him privileges and caters to the other sex -- is how most girls and women feel all the time. Careful nudges toward thinking about gender privilege, without hammering readers over the head with it.

Mostly the book is funny -- prank hijinks! -- and a solid friendship school story. Would appeal to boys and girls who like relatable realistic fiction.… (meer)

St. Edith's tried going coed, but the experiment failed. The school soon stopped accepting boys, but allowed those already enrolled to continue. Over the years, the number of boys has dwindled, and now, the thing he has dreaded has finally come to pass: Jeremy is the last boy left at the school. He gets his tuition waived because his mother is the secretary, which means that she can't afford to pull him out and send him to another private school -- and the public schools in his area are not desirable. Jeremy is desperate: he has to find a way to get kicked out of school that won't land him in juvie. He and his daring friend Claudia settle on a prank war as the best way to get him in just enough, but not too much, trouble. Jeremy has some rules: nobody is to get hurt, and nothing is to be permanently damaged. Unfortunately, things start to (literally) snowball out of his control. Will his plan work, or is Jeremy headed for more trouble than he bargained for?

This was a quick, fun read. It was also an interesting, though not incredibly deep, look at masculinity and what it might be like to be in Jeremy's situation. I'd recommend this to readers who enjoy boarding school stories and tales of prank wars, though this does not have quite the high levels of hilarity that typically characterize the latter.… (meer)