eww ( )

eww ( )

This is the kind of YA fiction that makes me feel old. ( )

This book is set up like an internet chat room, and is read through messages between a group of friends. Packed full of drama and adventure- this book was all kinds of fun and entertaining. Definitely not that appropriate for younger teens, even though the cover might make it look like it would be. ( )

This book has become such an Issue in my shared K-8 library -- the 5th graders desperately want to read it, and the elementary librarian tells them they need to wait until middle school -- that I decided I needed to read the dang thing finally.

It is indeed not appropriate for 5th grade. By page 11 the girls have chatted about shaving pubic hair (and the grossness of not doing so; they refer to the girlfriend of one of their brothers thereafter as "pelt-woman") and female ejaculation. I feel a-ok steering kids younger than 7th grade away.

But honestly, I'm seriously considering getting it out of my collection entirely. That makes me deeply uncomfortable; my usual philosophy is that kids should try what they want, with guidance, and they'll self-censor pretty well. I want to keep popular titles around, especially the ones that work so well for reluctant readers.

My problems with this book, though, aren't about sexual frankness. It's the cattiness, the strict policing of girl behavior, and the way they do it all under the guise of fighting back against the real mean girls. I kept waiting for the text to acknowledge that the main characters are being just as bitchy as the other girls they bitch about, but except in some subtle ways that are easy for a middle schooler to miss, it did not.

That sort of attitude is way more insidious than the "that's too scary" or "that female ejaculation stuff sounds inappropriate" that makes a kid put a book down. In something like [b:The Clique|890143|The Clique (The Clique, #1)|Lisi Harrison|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347819098s/890143.jpg|541421], the protagonists clearly are the "mean girls" -- readers find their cartoonish rich bitchiness delicious, but they don't aspire to be those girls. In TTYL, though, Zoe, Angela, and Maddie are portrayed as "wronged"; the girls they complain about are the problem and therefore they're justified in being horrible to them. My students rarely have enough perspective to get that everyone feels like Zoe, Angela, and Maddie sometimes, even the people they "hate," and that the world is a worse place when we police the styles of other women's pubic hair or blame flirty girls for boys' infidelity.

I'm torn. I get why this book is popular, and I don't actually think it's junk -- there are some real issues here about choosing crushes wisely, and getting in over one's head, and supporting one's friends. But they're high school issues, despite the cutesy cover, and I think my students need more life experience before they're ready to accept this version of high school as just one possibility. ( )